Air guns - Pyramyd Air Report

A shrine built for a Feinwerkbau 124 - Part 5

noreply@blogger.com (B.B. Pelletier) — Fri, 19 Mar 2010 10:30:00 +0000

by B.B Pelletier

Part 1
Part 2
Part 3
Part 4

Before I start, a couple of reminders. First is the Facebook event on Tuesday, April 8, at 8 p.m. Eastern. I'll be on the Pyramyd Air Facebook page for an hour to answer questions you send in. To ask questions, you need a Facebook account and you must be a Friend of Pyramyd Air. Register early and don't miss out.

Next, don't forget the Arkansas Airgun Extravaganza, April 30 & May 1. This airgun show is open to the public on Friday, 10 a.m. to 6 p.m., and Saturday, 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. Six-foot tables are $50 each. Admission is $5. Kids 12 and under get in free with an adult. Dealer setup is on Friday, 8 a.m. to 10 a.m. Visit the show website here.

The show is filling fast, and it looks like it'll be larger than last year's Little Rock show, which it replaces. I hope you consider attending. I'd sure like to meet as many of you as possible, and I'll be bringing several of my airguns to show and possibly to shoot, including today's rifle.

Also, a word to show-goers. If you're going to attend the show only on Saturday, come before noon. Airgun dealers get antsy toward the end of every show and start packing up early. Unlike gun shows, they're not penalized for this. Get there while the show is still running strong.

Today, I'll tell you what I did to the 124 after discovering that the Mongoose kit wasn't performing up to my expectations. You may recall that it was shooting Crosman 7.9-grain Premiers at an average of 670 f.p.s. I had expected at least 840 f.p.s. Although the firing behavior was very smooth and delightful, I had hoped to break at least 800 f.p.s., so I continued to work on the rifle.

First, I removed the mainspring only and wiped off about 3/4 of the black tar grease. That still left enough to kill all vibration, and the velocity rose to about 700 f.p.s. That's a gain of about 40 f.p.s. It's possible to remove the mainspring without a total disassembly, so it was quick and I did it first to see what gains there would be.

Next, I completely disassembled the rifle and removed all the lubrication from the powerplant. I carefully relubricated it very sparingly, keeping the use of tar confined to the outer coils of the mainspring. That got me to 710-720 f.p.s., which was about as far as the Mongoose kit is going to take me.

I'd treated the Mongoose kit as a drop-in instant power booster, and apparently it's not. It's more of a 1970s-era 124 kit that needs to be coaxed to shoot as fast as possible--just like the factory 124. I discovered something very important about the piston seal. It's domed. With that shape, it'll never produce the absolute fastest velocity since the top of the dome stops it from compressing all the air in the chamber. It may seem like a small thing when you look at it, but this last bit of compressed air is where the big things happen. Maccari has made this seal to cushion the piston blow rather than develop maximum power, so consider that when you order your tuneup kit.

The Mongoose piston seal has a raised, dome-shaped crown. It cannot compress all the air in front of it.

Compare this Surrey 124 seal to the Mongoose seal. See how flat it is on top?

At this point, there were several different directions open to me. One was to start shimming the Mongoose mainspring for extra compression. That would boost power. Another was to abandon the Mongoose seal in favor of a flat one. That would compress the air more thoroughly and give more power.

I took a third step that's not available to any of you. From my years of working on argues, I had other mainsprings available. I selected a stouter one that was shorter but had a spacer top hat on one end. The other end fit the spring guide very tightly because this was an experimental Maccari 124 mainspring. I retained the Mongoose seal for smoothness and assembled the rifle with minimal lubrication. No black tar because the new spring fit much tighter than the Mongoose spring. I used moly grease on everything. I knew I would lose some power with the Mongoose seal, but that was okay for now. All I wanted was a working 124 with decent power.

As I assembled the rifle, I also answered someone's concern about the safety spring. They had heard it is a concern when assembling a 124, but I say as long as your spring compressor is a good one the safety spring is easy to install. Hopefully, the pictures will show you how it's done.

This is the 124 trigger unit with the safety slide and spring removed.

Here's the spring I've been calling the safety spring. It's actually a trigger-return spring, but it presses against the safety slide.

And here's the safety slide on top of the trigger unit. You can see the spring between the trigger unit and this slide. As the trigger unit enters the spring tube, the safety slide is pressed flat and retained. There's really no difficulty installing these parts as long as you use a mainspring compressor.

Following this tune, the rifle is averaging 800 f.p.s. with 7.9-grain Crosman Premiers. While that's not as much as I want, I'm fine with it for the moment. The gun fires quick and doesn't vibrate when it shoots, so the tighter parts are as trouble-free as can be. The velocity varies between 783 f.p.s. and 802 f.p.s. Experience tells me this will tighten, and the average velocity will increase by 10-15 f.p.s. as this tune wears in.

I'd planned to test the rifle for accuracy at this point, but I'm not yet finished with the project. The barrel's gunked up with oil and grease that I don't want to clean out until I'm done tuning.

My plan is to now install a Maccari Old School kit and be done with it. This is the kit I used to install in 124 rifles 15 years ago, and I know I can expect a velocity over 840 f.p.s. with 7.9 Premiers. The best result I ever got is still averaging 880 f.p.s.

Well, this little adventure has turned into quite the saga, hasn't it? I never envisioned spending this much time with this rifle. Now that I have, I've decided what to do with the gun in the future. I'll keep the rifle outside the case and shoot it from time to time. It was silly keeping it tucked away where I got to see it only every couple years. That isn't what this rifle was made for, and I intend getting the full value out of it.

Someone asked me what all this tuning does to the value of the gun. Well, the box only adds value in a non-monetary way. Yes, it's worth more than a rifle by itself, but this is no collectible. It's more of a curiosity. So, I feel the tuning does nothing but enhance the value of the gun. I won't scope this rifle because of the pristine condition, but I will leave it out of the case as a shooter.

In the future, I will chronograph and also shoot for accuracy the vintage Beeman Silver Jet pellets, which--believe it or not, started this whole report in the first place.

On Monday, I'll show you a 124 clone Vince sent to me.

Vince's "Impossible Dream"

noreply@blogger.com (B.B. Pelletier) — Thu, 18 Mar 2010 10:30:00 +0000

by B.B. Pelletier

Well, Vince is back with another fantastic tale of gunsmithing, gun renovation and making parts. I'm just a tinkerer compared to Vince's vast talent. I enjoy his guest blogs because I always learn something new. You, too?

If you'd like to write a guest post for this blog, please email me.

Bloggers must be proficient in the simple html that Blogger software uses, know how to take clear photos and size them for the internet (if their post requires them), and they must use proper English. We'll edit each submission, but we won't work on any submission that contains gross misspellings and/or grammatical errors.

Now, let's get on with Vince's "Impossible Dream"

by Vince

Ha ha, I know. Vince is gonna clean up his workbench and maybe even get all his tools sorted out. Yeah. Like that's ever gonna happen. No, what I'm talking about is a task that is so incredibly incredible, so unbelievably unbelievable, and so hopeless hapless that only an absolute FOOL would even THINK about attempting it!

I'm gonna accurrize me a Marksman 1010!

The Marksman 1010 Classic.

I can already hear the guffaws and howls of laughter. And frankly, well, there's a reason for that. After all, the Marksman 1010 is a legend without peer in the field of inaccuracy. When B.B. tested one over 3 years ago, he couldn't stay on the 5"x5" target paper--from 10 feet away. I distinctly remember shooting at some cans with mine one evening and knocking one over... one that happened to be about a foot away from the one I was actually aiming at. At about 12 feet. The trigger-pull weight is generally comparable to, say, a Diana 52 with scope. Not comparable to the Diana's TRIGGER weight, mind you, but to the weight of the WHOLE GUN.

So, why even bother?

Actually, the 1010 had a couple of things going for it, especially the old metal ones. First, is the "cool factor." Let's face it; it was all-metal and full-weight before all-metal and full-weight became popular buzzwords. Nobody was going to ever mistake it for the real 1911 it was modeled after, but the resemblance to a real firearm was unmistakenly there. It had REAL heft to it and could be a very formidable close-quarter weapon (well, if used as a club, anyway). Second, it was and is cheap. Third, it was popular, so they're still available in copious quantities for the aforementioned cheapness.

While I was accurrizing Wacky Wayne's Markham Model D way back when (by fitting a Daisy Avanti 499 barrel to it), I got this crazy idea: Why not use a hunk of the other barrel I bought and see if something could be done for the ol' 1010? So, that's exactly what I did.

And then forgot about it. Better late than never.

Without going into personal details, let's just say that my life started getting rather complicated around the time I played with this thing, and I never really gave it a proper test. Well, things are settling down quite a bit now and I'm in the process of going through all my airguns, deciding what to keep and what to ditch. When I came across my old 1010, I remembered my barrel retrofit and decided to give it a real test before deciding what to do with it.

So, I go to my 15' basement BB range, set up a target, filled up the 1010 with new Daisy BBs and let 're rip. The first group was pretty bad, but I was shooting offhand…and I'm a LOUSY offhand pistol shot. To give it a proper test, the next group was shot from a rested position and gave me (Are you ready?)…ALL SHOTS LANDING ON THE PAPER!

Actually, it did much better than that. It gave me a 5-shot group of slightly under 1.75". For a smoothbore springer with me pulling the 50-lb. trigger isn't all that bad. And coming from a Marksman 1010...well, that group size might literally be 1/10 the size it would have shot as it came from the factory.

5 shots, Daisy BBs, using a rest: 1.75" group

Now I'm in a bit of a pickle. Even though the 1010 is not a serious gun for the serious hobbyist, I AM sorta honor-bound to help out poor, overworked BB with a mediocre guest blog once in a while. It's something that I'm not sure has been tried by anyone else. It did work pretty well, and I do have some interesting results to report. But I've got one problem: I don't really remember how I did it.

Fortunately, for me (and less so for the you guys), I took pictures when I did this conversion. Even more amazing, I was able to find those pictures over a year later. Since this sorta jogs my memory, well, this blog ain't over yet. What I'll do is step through these one by one, in more or less the proper order, and give a running narration of how I remember this coming together.

Step one: Get a grip
The 1010 is a surprisingly complicated air pistol for such a cheap little peashooter. It requires a level of patience all out of proportion to the lowly nature of the gun. So be prepared. Just for reference, this is what the "naked gun" looks like:

Gee, I'd never seen this side of you before.

Step two: Do everything else
The next three pictures are a bit of a cheat. I had never photographed the very first steps, so these are recent. Cock the gun halfway (pull the slide back, but do not return it forward), remove the front screw and loosen the others.

Loosen the circled ones, remove the front one. Please note: the cocking slide oughta be pulled back.

Gently pry the halves of the gun slightly apart at the muzzle. NOTE WHERE THAT LITTLE SPRING IS! You'll need to put it back, and it probably won't cooperate. Once you're familiar with where it goes, spread the gun halves just enough to get out the barrel assembly.

Remember where this puppy goes!

Just enough to get it out.

Now, we have to figure out how to get the old shot tube out. Take a look at the barrel assembly from the front. Obviously it's not coming out that way!

Turn around the barrel assembly and remove that rubber grommet/seal in the back...

...and slide the shot tube out.

If you lay the Daisy 499 shot tube next to the barrel housing, you'll get a general idea of how it needs to go in. The outside diameter of the old tube is 1/4", while the OD of the 499 is 5/16". Except for the very end, where it's VERY conveniently turned down to 1/4" from the factory:

Marksman barrel housing and Daisy 499 shot tube.

Here's where I may have inadvertently taken the long way around. I suspect it would have been easier to turn down the OD of the Daisy tube to 1/4", cut off a hunk of the proper length and just slide it back in the way the old one came out. But, NOOOO! Easy ain't for me. Besides, I don't have a lathe, so I did it the hard way. I drilled out the front of the barrel housing with a 5/16" bit.

Please. Do a better job than I did.

Make sure that the plastic bosses on the underside of the housing are cut away as necessary.

Disembowel where indicated.

If I make it long enough, it'll reach all the way to the target!

The new barrel can be slid in from the front until it's even with the back.

At this point, you'll find that you can just put the breech grommet back, just as with the original shot tube.

Pull the grommet back out. The shot tube length has to be cut down and the muzzle crowned…crowned the KING of cheap BB pistols, that is!

A little needs to be ground off the bottom to clear a screw boss.

Grind where circled.

Slide out the shot tube, smear it with a little epoxy and slide it back in. DON'T GET EPOXY IN THE BARREL! Let it set, reinstall the barrel housing into the pistol frame and…voila! You're done!

Now, your beloved 1010 or 2005 (you know, they've got some nerve naming the horrible 2005 something so close to the excellent 2004!) or whatever should now be transformed into a passable plinker. And by that I mean hitting soda cans pretty reliably at BB-gun ranges. Can't help but think that it might even do better with Avanti Precision BBs, but I don't have any of those.

My biggest regret in all this is failing to document the before and after performances. However, I don't think that's too much of an issue here. As I said before, the 1010 and its derivatives are notoriously horrible in the world of BB pistols--a world that is hardly populated with precision shooting instruments. And, yes, I've got airsoft pistols that will shoot under 1" at 15 feet, but that's not really the point.

As I said before, the 1010 IS a cool looking pistol. How many kids AND adults had been horribly disappointed over the years by it's absolute lack of accuracy? Which just ain't right. So, I guess you could say that this was simply a pursuit of justice. Righting a wrong. Bringing balance to the universe and so on. You could say that, but it'd be a wad of horse manure. I just wanted to see how well it'd work, which I did. And I wound up with a 1010 that shoots almost straight, so I can lift up my head and shout to the world: "I'M LIVIN' THE DREAM, MAN!" The Impossible Dream, that is!

A shrine built for a Feinwerkbau 124 - Part 4

noreply@blogger.com (B.B. Pelletier) — Wed, 17 Mar 2010 10:30:00 +0000

by B.B. Pelletier

Part 1
Part 2
Part 3

My enshrined 124.

Today, I'll complete the tune on the FWB 124. A couple people have asked about this gun. What makes it so special? Well, it's lightweight, accurate, easy to cock and shoots like a dream. It's the very rifle AlanL has been searching for but doesn't realize it.

Back in the 1970s, when the FWB first came to the attention of airunners, it was considered one of the most powerful springers available. Together with the BSF S55/60/70 and the Diana 45, it was one of those rare air rifles that would sometimes shoot faster than 800 f.p.s. Today, we wouldn't give it a second look with numbers like that and here is what we would miss. We would miss owning a Mercedes SSK convertible, just because it doesn't go as fast as a Mustang SVO. Nobody would give any thought to the fine coachwork, the burled wood dash or the exotic leather seats. No, they would all be focused on the speedometer and miss one of the finest examples of its kind ever to have been built.

What to expect
With a modern tuneup, like the one I've done here, the 124 should top 840 f.p.s. with Crosman 7.9-grain Premiers. I showed you the tuneup kit yesterday. Today I'll install it along with some lubrication that I always do on a 124. Of course, this is one more reason for owning a chronograph.

Cutting up the old seal
Before I begin, I had some comments that I will now address. First, someone asked me how I cut the thick piston seal to remove it. I mentioned a special knife that I'd like to show you. This tanto-shaped blade comes on a Gerber Crucial multitool that Edith gave me for Christmas. I keep it in my desk drawer and it is one of the handiest multitools I've ever seen. The knife blade is very stout, so it handled this job like a breeze and a few passes over the Warthog got the blade sharp in moments.

A Gerber Crucial multitool has a tanto-shaped blade that was ideal for cutting the old seal into pieces, as shown previously.

Removal of old seal material
The second tip is for Derrick38, who says it can be tough to remove old seal material from a compression chamber. Yes, it can! But I found that the patch removal tool that goes on my Thompson/Center Hawken ramrod is very good at scraping in those tight corners.

The patch removal tool on a Thompson/Center Hawken ramrod is great for picking old seal material out of the crevices of the compression chamber.

Sizing the new seal
The first thing to address is the piston seal. This one fit pretty tight in the spring tube of the rifle, so I decided to remove some material from the edges. There are a lot of ways to do this, and I chose the easiest one because I'm a guy who likes simple. I held the piston with seal in my right hand and a piece of 220-grain sandpaper in my left hand and proceeded to scrub off a tiny bit of the edge of the seal.

This is the way to make the new piston seal a trifle smaller.

You have to know when to stop. I just wanted the new seal to fit in the spring tube with slightly less resistance, which it did after a few minutes of work. Next, I cleaned the inside of the piston with denatured alcohol and Q-tips. It was caked with dried moly or tar that had to be removed. The 124 piston is very heavy for the power the gun develops, so heavy pellets should work pretty well.

Lube the compression chamber walls
I had cleaned out the compression chamber earlier, so now it was time to smear moly grease on the inside walls of the chamber. For that, I use a dowel with a paper towel folded over the end and held on with a rubber band. It allows me to accurately coat the inside of the cylinder.

Moly grease on a paper towel on the end of a dowel is the way to lube the inside of the compression chamber.

Lube the piston
Next, I lubricated the piston before putting it back in the gun. I put a stripe of moly grease around the front with the seal and another around the rear where the piston flares out.

A stripe of moly grease around the piston seal and another one at the rear of the steel piston will keep things slipping along.

The piston can now be inserted back into the spring tube, keeping the cocking slot aligned with the slot in the spring tube. When the front of the piston is in the tube, that's the best time to lubricate the rear of the piston and the piston rod. Shove the piston into the tube with the new mainspring.

A stripe of moly grease around the rear of the steel piston keeps the metal-to-metal contact lubricated.

Install the sliding shoe/cocking link
Once the piston is inside the spring tube, the sliding "shoe" that connects the cocking link to the piston can be lubricated and installed. A wide spot in the spring tube slot accepts this shoe.

The shoe is lubricated with moly grease on both sides and dropped through the wide spot in the spring tube. It rides on a special bearing surface on the piston, so that was also moly-ed before installation.

Lube and install the mainspring
Next it was time to install the new mainspring. Before I did that, the spring got a liberal coating of black tar, the open gear lubricant that deadens vibration. I smear the front half of the spring first, then insert it into the piston and use it to hold the spring so I can lube the rear half.

Caution--here is where I screwed up!
What the picture shows is too much black tar being put on the mainspring. I didn't know that until the job was finished and the gun back together, of course, but I now have a rifle shooting 7.9-grain Premiers at 670 f.p.s. instead of the approximately 840 f.p.s. I expected. I used too much because Jim Maccari said the Mongoose kit I selected was a loose fit and needed tar to calm the vibrations. I hate vibrations, so I went overboard. The fix will be to take the gun apart and remove a lot of the tar I applied.

This is too much black tar. I will have to remove a lot of it.

One thing about fitting a mainspring to a rifle. The tightest end of the spring always goes over the spring guide in the rear.

Lube the baseblock and pivot bolt
The FWB 124 has a baseblock bearing on just the right side. The left side is plain. I smeared moly grease on both sides and also on the pivot bolt before it was inserted.

Moly on both sides of the baseblock and on the pivot bolt will reduce the cocking effort to the minimum.

The trigger unit is now pushed back into the spring tube, keeping tension on the safety spring as you go. When the bolt hole lines up, the bolt is screwed in and the job is just about finished. Just put the action back in the stock and you're done.

Mainspring compressor make this an easy job.

The tuned rifle cocks easily at just 23 lbs. Beeman used to advertise the cocking effort at 18 lbs., but all the 124s (about a dozen) I have tested were around 21-23 lbs. So, we're in the ballpark. Of course, the velocity is low, but I'll take care of that in the next report. I'll also shoot the rifle for accuracy with open sights.

The trigger
The trigger is one thing I never learned to adjust on a 124 and I used to think it was impossible, but I once owned Mrs. Beeman's 124, which I named the Queen B. That trigger broke at less than a pound, so someone knows how to do the job. Just not me.

Irony at work
Of course, the new pliable breech seal was installed and the petrified "new" breech seal I had tried went back into the box with all the other ruined new parts. I find it incredibly ironic that the owner of this fine rifle had wanted to preserve it for all time and it didn't last as well as a similar rifle used every day. I guess man plans and God laughs.

A shrine built for a Feinwerkbau 124 - Part 3

noreply@blogger.com (B.B. Pelletier) — Tue, 16 Mar 2010 10:30:00 +0000

by B.B. Pelletier

Part 1
Part 2

My enshrined 124.

Before we start, I have an announcement. I'll be on Facebook answering questions again on April 8th at 8 p.m., Eastern. The last time was during the work day, which may have been inconvenient for many people, so we're giving this time slot a try. Please join me if you're able. I'll be answering airgun questions on Facebook on this Pyramyd Air Facebook page. To see the discussion and ask questions, you must have a free Facebook account.

Today, I'll start the tuneup on this rifle, and I have some very interesting things to show you. I'll get through the disassembly in this installment, and in the next part I'll tune the rifle.

I purchased a Maccari Mongoose tune kit that includes the mainspring and seal. I also bought a new breech seal to replace the new one in the box that had hardened over the years. Finally, I bought some of Jim's Heavy Tar and his moly grease, because I'm getting low on those supplies.

This is the kit and lubes.

Step one in disassembly is to remove the action from the stock. That's two forearm screws and the front triggerguard screw. The moment the action was out, I saw clear evidence that this rifle had received some kind of tuneup in the past. I could see that the mainspring was coated with black tar, a product they didn't even know about in the 1970s when this rifle was new. For a few minutes, I thought maybe I had done it and had forgotten I did, but as the gun came apart I saw proof that I had never been inside.

Once the action is out of the stock, it goes into the mainspring compressor. Blog reader Vince said that he doesn't use a compressor, but the 124 is one of those rifles that really needs it. And here's a big tip. When you adjust the compressor to receive the rifle, leave a lot of adjustment room on the screw that backs off the spring tension. You really need the room there.

The single bolt in front of the trigger blade holds the 124 action together.

Leave lots of room for the mainspring to back up.

I use a heavy cardboard pusher to avoid damaging the rifle's finish.

The trigger assembly and safety slide came out without a problem, as did the mainspring. It was in very good condition; but I've purchased a replacement whose pedigree I know for certain, so I'll replace it anyway.

With the tension off the mainspring, the trigger unit moved almost two inches back. It will need an extra inche to install the new spring.

The trigger unit contains the mainspring guide. The old spring is in pretty good shape. That's the assembly bolt that held the rifle together.

Before the piston will come out, it must be disconnected from the cocking link. For that to happen, the barrel has to come off the action fork. When I pulled off the barrel, I saw no evidence of moly grease on the sides of the baseblock or on the pivot bolt. They were lubricated with a light machine oil. That's a clear indication that I've never been inside this airgun.

The cocking link fits into the cocking shoe that is held captive inside the piston until the barrel is disconnected from the spring tube.

The pivot bolt is the large screw on the right. Take it out and the baseblock separates from the action fork.

With the barrel off, it's possible to slide the cocking link far enough to the rear of the cocking slot that the FWB cocking shoe can be removed. There's a widened spot in the cocking slot just for this.

Now the spring tube is disconnected from the barrel and the piston slides out easily. When I saw this one, I knew the seal was gone. Just look at the picture!

A classic case of a disintegrated piston seal, with the new one for comparison. This happens to FWBs, Walthers and Diana recoilless guns made during the 1970s.

Usually, I can pop out an old 124 seal in a few seconds. This one took an hour. Although the top part had disintegrated, the bottom was still fresh and strong and fought me at every point. I finally had to cut it into four sections to pry one of them out.

Took me an hour to cut the old seal up. Hardest replacement I've ever encountered.

This is the action fork I mentioned earlier.

Okay, with that much disintegration of the seal, there will be lots of seal parts inside the compression chamber, as indeed there were. Use something sharp and pointy to dig them out of the corners, where they will have impacted over time. I used a patch extractor on the ramrod of my Thompson/Center Hawken. Then, I wrapped paper towels around the end of the rod and soaked them in denatured alcohol to clean the compression chamber. There was no moly there--another indicator that I have never been inside this rifle. Clean until all the seal particles are out and the compression chamber sparkles.

All the oil needs to be cleaned off the baseblock and the action forks. They'll get a coat of moly grease when they go back together. The pivot bolt will also get a coat of moly, but I'll describe all that in detail when I tune the rifle.

That's as far as I will go today.

The Crosman Silhouette PCP pistol - Part 4

noreply@blogger.com (B.B. Pelletier) — Mon, 15 Mar 2010 10:30:00 +0000

by B.B. Pelletier

Part 1
Part 2
Part 3

Okay, today would normally be accuracy day for this pistol, and I will shoot it for accuracy, but today is going to serve a double purpose. You see, the Crosman Silhouette PCP pistol is shipped without a rear sight because of all the possibilities customers will have for the airgun. Some may want to use it for silhouette competition, but a lot more are going to have other uses for it. So, no rear sight.

However, Crosman sent me a peep sight to test with the pistol, and therein lies the extra fun in today's report. Because last week when I was struggling to turn a 1980s-rear peep into something I could use with the Bronco, I had on my desk the probable answer to our problem all along. This new Crosman sight that I paid no attention to before now appears to be the very Williams rear sight that one of our readers (I believe it was Randy in VA) suggested we test with the Bronco. So, after today's evaluation, I'll move this sight over to the Bronco and test it there for you.

New Williams peep from Crosman shows a LOT of promise.

Today, we're concentrating on the Crosman Silhouette PCP, which is a single-shot .177 caliber pneumatic target pistol designed for shooting airgun silhouette. The sight elevation had to be cranked way up to clear the bolt handle on the left side, but it was easy to do and worked fine. The the dovetail adjusting screws are run in tight and the dovetail locking screw sucks everything together.

Sight fits the pistol great and adjusts the way I like it--with detents!

This sight has click detents, something my Beeman Sport Aperture doesn't have. That makes adjusting a breeze.

7.9-grain Premiers
Sight-in started at 10 feet and I was on in four shots. Then out to 10 meters, where the elevation was close but the shots were to the right. I shot a group of Crosman 7.9-grain Premiers that looked pretty good, though I knew I could do better. All shooting was rested and I was wearing my bifocals. Since this was with iron sights, I concentrated on the front sight and let the target and aperture go fuzzy. The aperture in this sight is huge, no doubt because this is a pistol. Even so, it seemed to work well.

The 10-meter sight-in target. Group in the white at the right was the first group. Then the sights were adjusted to the left, resulting in the shot at 4 o'clock in the black. More left gave me the group in the center of the bull. Shot low at 6 o'clock is part of that group.

JSB Exacts
Then I switched to JSB Exacts and what a difference! I got the kind of precision usually only gotten with a scope!

Okay, I'm happy with this quarter-inch five-shot group at 10 meters. Five 10.3-grain JSB Exacts.

Five Beeman Kodiaks gave me this group.

A final group of five JSBs.

Firing behavior
When the gun discharges, there's a definite torquing to the right. It happened on every shot and was enough movement to be disconcerting, though the targets don't show anything.

The rough, crude trigger makes me long for something more sophisticated. When I hold on target as with a 10-meter pistol, I don't like a long creepy second stage, but that's what the gun has. Owners should plan to address this issue.

The noise is incredibly low for a PCP. Granted, this isn't a powerful gun, but I was still running it at 500 f.p.s. from the last test and thought it was very quiet. Not as quiet as a 1077, but less than a medium spring rifle.

One of our reraders said that I never say nasty things about airguns. Well, that's true. It's not my style. So, for his benefit I will say that I am about to gush all over this airgun, so stand back, Jack. This is a natural shooter--that rare and precious gun that shoots exactly where you aim every time. I knew that last summer when I shot the prototype Ray Apelles brought to his field target episode with American Airgunner. I still think so.

This sight is a winner, too. I'll mount it on the Bronco, and we'll have a go there. Pyramyd Air stands ready to order this sight for us, and I think it's a good idea.

The Bronco from Air Venturi - Part 6

noreply@blogger.com (B.B. Pelletier) — Fri, 12 Mar 2010 11:30:00 +0000

by B.B. Pelletier

Part 1
Part 2
Part 3
Part 4
Part 5

Air Venturi Bronco.

Before we begin, I have a request from a reader in Iowa. She would like to learn more about airguns and shoot with some clubs in and around Montezuma. Any airgunners who belong to clubs in that location, could you please identify yourselves in the comments to this report, and I'll let her know how to contact you. The sport you shoot isn't that important. It can be field target, silhouette or 10-meter. As long as airguns are involved, she wants to start shooting.

Today, I'm looking at mounting a Mendoza rear aperture sight on a Bronco. This was my original plan for this rifle, but the cost proved too much, so I made it an option. Like all of you, I expect a Mendoza sight to work correctly on a Mendoza rifle, which the Bronco is. The problem with this sight is that it's always too high for the rifles people put it on, and today we'll learn how the Bronco accepts it.

No-go
The short of it is that the Mendoza sight does not adjust low enough to shoot at 10 meters with the Bronco. There are many fixes for that, such as lengthening the front sight, but that's not what I'm reporting on today. How sad that a rear aperture sight does not allow adjustment for a distance at which many shooters would like to shoot. I'll speak to Mendoza about this because it's a serious drawback to an otherwise fine product. However, much like the Mythbusters, I have a fallback plan.

The Beeman Sport Aperture sight
It costs more than twice what the Mendoza sight costs, but the Beeman Sport Aperture sight does adjust lower. It isn't currently available, but that's being looked into. The changeover of the Beeman company ownership has left many of their products in a state of limbo that only now is being addressed.

What I'm about to describe may no longer be necessary, because my Beeman sight is at least 20 years old. I note that the one Pyramyd Air sold most recently is already modified in the way I am about to describe.

Having a Beeman sight on hand, I mounted it and started shooting. Once again, though, it was a no-go. While the Beeman sight made by Williams does indeed adjust much lower than the Mendoza, the elevation post slide on the left side of my older sight hits the stock at some point. As I said, the new sights may not have this problem. If your sight does, it leaves you with two options.

Two options
Option one is to cut a clearance slot in the wood stock. Option two is to remove the bottom of the elevation post, which will allow lower adjustments. I chose option two, because this is a problem this sight has on a great many air rifles.

The Beeman Sport Aperture sight hits the top of the stock which limits how low it will adjust.

This is a .17 HM2 rifle a friend made up for me. He mounted the aperture sight and carved out the stock for maximum adjustability. I didn't want to do that with the Bronco's stock.

The bottom portion of the elevation staff is useless to this sight. I decided to whack it off.

It took a Dremel tool cutoff wheel about five minutes to slice off the unwanted bottom of the staff. Then, a few strokes of a file dressed the cut clean.

With the bottom gone, the elevation will adjust much lower. Hopefully, I'll be on target at 10 meters.

Back on the rifle, you can see how much lower the Beeman sight adjusts. Will it be enough?

Success!
Back to the range and success at last. The pellets now drill the center of the bull at 10 meters. Anything farther will require elevation, which I have in bucket loads.

The tell-all picture. Top group was with the Mendoza sight adjusted as low as it would go. Next down is the Beeman sight before modification as low as it would go before bottoming out on the Bronco stock. Bottom group is the Beeman sight after being cut off.

So, the outcome of today's report is that the Mendoza rear sight doesn't adjust low enough for the Bronco. The Beeman Sport Aperture doesn't either, but with ten minutes work, it will. I think I would keep this sight on the Bronco because it is quick and easy to use, and I even think it looks better.

Benjamin Trail NP XL1100 - Part 4

noreply@blogger.com (B.B. Pelletier) — Thu, 11 Mar 2010 11:30:00 +0000

by B.B. Pelletier

Part 1
Part 2
Part 3

Before I begin today's report, I have some good news. There will be an airgun show in Arkansas at the end of April. Seth Rowland has stepped up and started organizing the show, which will be held in Malvern, Arkansas, a town about 15 miles from the former location. Malvern is located about 1 mile off I-30, so it's easy to get to. Here are the details.

Arkansas Airgun Extravaganza. April 30 & May 1. Open to the public Friday 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. and Saturday 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. Six-foot tables are $50 each. Admission is $5. Kids 12 and under get in free with an adult. Dealer setup Friday 8 a.m. to 10 a.m.

See the show map here.

If you are interested in getting a table you had better contact Seth right away, because the number of tables available will be limited. Here's his contact info.

For those who have been reading this blog and always wondered about what an airgun show is like, perhaps this is your chance to find out. Seth is going all-out to attract new dealers to this show, so there should be a greater variety of vintage airguns than has been seen at past shows. I'll be there along with Dennis Quackenbush and Tom Strayhorn, a collector of fine Walther airguns. Were also trying to get new gun dealers to attend, so you may get the opportunity to see some of the guns that you've been wondering about online. Please try to attend this show and bring along some of those airguns you can stand to part with. That's what makes a good show.

Okay, today we'll finish the accuracy test for the Benjamin Trail NP XL1100. Remember, I'm letting you look over my shoulder on this one for the benefit of the newer readers who are not familiar with my way of doing things. Yesterday, we prepared the rifle for this test, so the first thing to do today is a rough sight-in at 10 feet. It took four pellets to get on target, then I was ready to move out to 25 yards. Although my 10-minute sight-in article says to move from 10 feet to 10 yards, I've gotten to the point that I can skip that step and move right to 20-25 yards after the 10-foot adjustment. You have to know the ballistics of the gun being tested and you need to have some confidence in the process, but it does work just that easily.

The artillery hold
The importance of the artillery hold was mentioned in yesterday's report, but I'm repeating it today because it's so important. There's no rifle more difficult to shoot accurately than a breakbarrel springer. They're twitchy and extremely sensitive to how they're held. The worst are the super magnums (like this one) and those that have a long piston stroke--also like this one. I anticipate that hold will be critical.

JSB Exacts
I began with 15.8-grain JSB Exacts. They were among the pellets that I'd predicted would be good in the Trail XL. The first five went into a super group at 25 yards, giving me hope for this pellet.

Five shots with JSB Exacts at 25 yards made this great group, which measures 0.422" between centers of the two widest shots.

This 10-shot group opened up a couple tenths at 25 yards. JSB Exacts at 15.8 grains are good!

JSB Exact Jumbo Heavies
The next pellet I tried was JSB Exact Jumbo Heavies, the new 18.1-grain pellet. They didn't seem to group well at first, but then I learned a powerful truth about this rifle and this pellet.

This is the first 10-shot group I shot with 18.1-grain JSB Exact Jumbo Heavies. It doesn't look too good until you notice the two tighter groups contained within. There are three pellets in the left hole and four in the right. This becomes significant in a moment.

Here's the target that tells the story. It's a 7-shot group. There are three outliers and four in a tight hole at the bottom center. Read on to see what I learned!

Normally, I would have moved on after seeing the first 10-shot group, but now that Kevin has sparked my interest with his suggestion that a barrel needs to become accustomed to the new pellet whenever there's a change of ammunition, I'm shooting more shots per pellet. I didn't see what was happening with this JSB pellet until the final 7-shot group. The hold was so critical that it made all the difference. The tight group at the bottom of the seven-shot group was made with a dead-soft hold. The outliers all were made with some tension in my body at the shot. I could sense the tension and seeing these results as this group happened, because the first 10-shot group had gone the same way. It was almost as though I could wish a pellet out of the group by thinking about being tense!

What this tells me is that the 18-grain JSB Exact is probably among the most accurate pellets in this rifle, but it needs a bucketload of holding technique to do well. Fortunately, for hunters, shooting offhand is exactly what this pellet requires. As long as your offhand hold is dead calm, this pellet should do very well for you.

H&N Baracuda Match
Next, I tried the H&N Baracudas, and yes, these were the match pellets.

Five H&N Baracuda Match pellets went into this 0.414" group at 25 yards. This is performance with a great hunting pellet. Lots of holding technique was used.

I sort of lost it with this group. Holding was so critical, and here you see what can happen when you don't hold dead calm. Ten H&N Baracuda Match at 25 yards. Eight pellets went into a group measuring 0.511" between centers, but the other two outliers are from a loss of concentration.

Crosman Premiers
Crosman Premier pellets normally do very well in guns sold under the Crosman/Benjamin/Sheridan banner, but not this time. The Premiers fit the bore very loosely and were not capable of grouping within three inches at 25 yards. And, when I say Premiers I mean those in the cardboard box, but also those Premiers and Premier hollowpoints sold in tins as well as those sold under the Benjamin name. They all have the same shape and configuration. The cardboard box simply means they are all made on the same die.

The results I got with Premiers were not due to a loss of concentration, and that's something that can take experience to spot. In this case, it wasn't too difficult because of the wild spraying of pellets, but other times it can be closer and more difficult to differentiate.

What's the final tally?
I think the Benjamin Trail XL 1100 is a great hunting spring gun. It packs a lot of value into a nice package with nothing more to buy or exchange. The power wasn't all that was advertised, but any day you can get 24-25 foot-pounds from a breakbarrel springer is a good one. The scope is first-class and the sling is very nice. The sling swivels solve a common problem for hunters, and the Weaver scope base solves another difficult problem that every airgunner has faced.

The trigger leaves something to be desired. Hopefully, this will be an issue they can resolve, because the trigger that's on the NPSS is such a delight to use once it's been properly adjusted. The barrel seems to be first-rate. It's accurate and well-rifled. I'm assuming it's crowned well, because with the shroud in place it cannot be seen.

As far as quiet goes, the Trail XL is a quiet airgun. It's not as quiet as the NPSS, but it's still much quieter than a conventional spring gun. The only dieseling I could detect was a slight smell of burned oil when I shot the Premiers. There was no smoke noticeable during this test and never a detonation.

The bottom line is the Benjamin Trail XL 1100 is a fine new addition to spring-gun hunting. It's too big and difficult to cock to think of general purpose shooting, but just about ideal for the airgun hunter.

Benjamin Trail NP XL1100 - Part 3

noreply@blogger.com (B.B. Pelletier) — Wed, 10 Mar 2010 11:30:00 +0000

by B.B. Pelletier

Part 1
Part 2

Today, we'll begin testing the Benjamin Trail NP XL 1100 for accuracy. And we're going to do this differently than usual. Because we have many new readers to this blog, I'm going to explain how I do accuracy testing in greater detail than usual. Sort of a chance for you to look over my shoulder. Hopefully this will help the newer shooters get a grasp of what's involved in airgun accuracy, so this accuracy report will take more than a single report to complete.

Adjust the trigger
As I begin, I think about the gun I'm about to test. What do I know about it? Well, The Benjamin Trail XL 1100 is based on the Crosman Nitro Piston Short Stroke, and I did some testing of that rifle. During that testing, I discovered that the NPSS has a wonderful, adjustable trigger. One of our readers commented just a couple days ago that his accuracy improved after he adjusted his NPSS trigger, so I'm going to adjust the Trail XL trigger right now. According to the blog I wrote on the NPSS trigger, I need to unscrew the one adjustment screw several turns to make stage two light and crisp.

Sad to report that there is very little joy in Mudville today. The trigger on the Benjamin Trail XL 1100 may resemble the one on the NPSS rifle, but it doesn't adjust as well. It does adjust, but the second stage is mushy and imprecise. Not at all what I reported on the NPSS. However, I got it as good as it would go, which was better than when I started. It releases with 5 lbs., 2 oz. of pressure, which sounds like a lot. However, because of how the trigger works, you've subtracted all but the final 2 lbs. by the time you release it.

Clean the barrel
I had my Remington 788 .30-30 out last week and shot some remarkably mediocre 50-yard groups with Remington factory ammo. Factory ammo is usually lacking in accuracy, but a two-inch, five-shot group at 50 yards is a little excessive. Yesterday, I cleaned the barrel and removed a ton of copper fouling. Way more fouling than would have been left by the 20 rounds I fired. So, the rifle was dirty before I started the session. To ensure that I don't make the same mistake with the Benjamin Trail, I'll clean the bore with J-B Non-Embedding Bore Cleaning Compound.

As a recap--I was told about this by Ben Taylor, who is the Ben in Theoben. He told me to clean the bore of my Beeman Crow Magnum with J-B Paste by passing a brass brush loaded with paste through the barrel 20 times in each direction. I'm not normally anal, but after the success I had after cleaning that rifle, I'm saying to count the number of strokes. Twenty times in each direction, starting from the breech, of course. Then remove all the residue and the bore should not only be sparkling clean, it will also be smoothed as though you had shot 500 pellets through it. Don't worry--a brass brush will not harm a steel barrel, and J-B paste is used by benchrest shooters all the time.

Normally, the first 10 passes are extremely tight, then things loosen up. That never happened with this barrel. Pass 20 was as tight as pass four. The first couple passes did loosen up just a little, but at the end of the cleaning I was still pushing hard on the rod to get the brush through the bore.

Check the screws
I do a once around the rifle to check all the stock screws for tightness. Because this rifle has a gas spring, I don't expect the screws to loosen very much, but it's always best to go into a test with everything right.

Mount the scope
We're blessed when we come to mounting the scope because Crosman has put Weaver bases on the rifle, so there will be no mounting problems. The Centerpoint 3-9x40 was almost correctly set in the rings, but not quite. After the two-piece rings were cinched down tight, I loosened the scope caps and rotated the scope tube until the vertical reticle seemed to bisect the receiver tube perfectly. There's nothing square on an airgun, or a firearm, for that matter, so trying to "level" the scope is a completely fruitless affair. There's nothing to level it with. You rotate the scope tube until it looks straight up and down to you. Someone else may disagree, but you're the one who will be shooting the gun, so that's all that matters.

Pick some pellets
Someone asked the other day how I knew which pellets to select for which guns. Well, it's simpler than it might seem. First, I know that a large number of pellets are not going to be the best in almost every airgun, so they seldom get selected. I only pick them when I can't seem to get anything else to work.

The other side is that there are known performers that almost always get picked. JSB Exacts, with the particular weights depending on the gun. This is a powerful springer, which means that it has the same power as a lower-powered PCP, with one important difference. Springers hit the pellet skirt with a heavy blast of air at the start, so the pellet needs thicker-walled skirts to not deform. At 25 foot-pounds, the Benjamin Trail XL is about as hard on pellet skirts as it gets. Think about using .22-caliber Crosman Premiers because they have really tough skirts. Think about using H&N Baracudas because they have a heavy skirt. Think of the heavier JSBs for their heavier skirts. Definitely DO NOT think RWS Superpoints that have ultra-thin skirts made of dead-soft lead. Their skirts would be deformed badly by the powerful air blast from the Nitro Piston.

So, I selected Baracudas (which are the same as Beeman Kodiaks), JSB Exact Jumbo Heavies (which weigh 18.1 grains) and JSB Exacts (which weigh 15.8 grains). Let's see where that gets us.

Use the artillery hold
I've had several readers recently discover the benefits of the artillery hold. That's when the rifle is held as loosely as possible so it can move and vibrate as much as it wants. While it seems counter-intuitive, such a hold will improve your shooting in 98 percent of the situations. Read about it here.

Kevin added something in an answer to a reader question the other day that I need to emphasize more. When you're shooting, align the crosshairs or sights--then close your eyes and relax. Open your eyes again. If the crosshairs moved off the target, the pellet would have moved in the same direction if you'd fired. Learn to settle in so the crosshairs are still on target when you open your eyes. That assists your follow-through, which is what this is all about. It works for firearms, too, though heavy-recoiling guns need a firmer hold than what I've described.

Sight-in
Here's where you and I will go in separate directions. You want to hit the target. I don't care. What I want to see is if the pellets tend to go to the same place. If they do, a sight adjustment may be needed to get them on target, but that's a separate step. I won't be doing anything with this gun other than making groups we can examine. If I were then going to shoot it afterwards, I would care about aligning the sights.

That bothers some people to no end. If they don't see the groups in the center of the bullseye, they think the gun is inaccurate. My brother-in-law feels that way. I can move the groups to where they'll look good with the sights or with Photoshop if I have to. So, hitting the center of the bullseye isn't something I even care about. But you should, because you will be using this gun to hit things. Don't let my testing affect your shooting.

And that's where I'll end it today. I've walked you through preparing to shoot, so next time I'll show you the results of that.

Which chronograph is right for me?

noreply@blogger.com (B.B. Pelletier) — Tue, 09 Mar 2010 11:30:00 +0000

by B.B. Pelletier

This report was suggested by reader G., but a lot of you have been talking about chronographs lately, so perhaps this is timely for everyone.

Don't need no stinking chronograph
When I did the R1 Homebrew series of articles for The Airgun Letter, I needed a chronograph. And as far as I was concerned, that was the first time in my shooting life that I did need one. Up to that point, I considered chronographs to be silly toys that bored shooters used to add spice to their hobby. But when I was faced with the reality of comparing before and after tuning airguns in print, there had to be something more than just my word about how the gun was performing.

The R1 Homebrew articles are what grew into the R1 book that was published in 1995. While attending the Winston-Salem Airgun Expo in 1993, I bought a used F-1 Shooting Chrony for $45. That chrono lasted me about a quarter of the way into the book. I stopped using it when I got spurious velocity readings of 150 f.p.s. slower than should have been the case. The problem was twofold. First, the ancient chronograph I was using had cardboard windows that served as diffuser holders in front of both the start and stop screens. The windows were there to align projectiles over the skyscreens. Tens of thousands of shots had ripped the start screen window to the point that it overhung the start screen lens. I trimmed it back, but if I trimmed it any more the window would have been cut through and would no longer hold the white plastic diffuser, so I allowed some of the cardboard to overhang.

The other problem I had was the distorted shape of the hole through the windows forced me to shoot on a downward slant. That was when I discovered the problem with doing that.

At this point, the decision had already been made to write the R1 book, so Edith and I bit the bullet and bought an Oehler 35P printing chronograph--the gold standard of personal chronographs. That model is no longer available; but if you can use a Windows computer, the Oehler 43 is the same instrument with software to operate on your Windows computer. Several writers use a laptop with their 43, and the printer can be anything the computer hooks up to.

The 35 P was discontinued because the Oehlers were not able to obtain a supply of small printers to go into their chronographs. They are available, but not at wholesale prices in quantities small enough for the Oehler operation. I have more to say about printers later.

For years, I looked down on those who used Shooting Chrony brand chronographs, because the Oehler is such a superior instrument. It has a clock speed of 4 megahertz. At the time, I thought the Chronys were using a 100 kilohertz clock, but that may not be the case. The Oehler also has a second chronograph circuit in the system so you get two readings for every shot. One is a check against the other, and there are warning symbols if the difference is too great.

Then, I decided to write about chronographs. The Oehler 35P was no longer available and besides, does a hobbyist really need that kind of machine? So, I asked Pyramyd Air to send me a Shooting Chrony Alpha chronograph and I reported on it in August 2005. The instrument I tested was quite an improvement over the old Chrony I had used more than a decade before. It set up easily and no longer had the cardboard windows that caused so much trouble. It probably also has a higher clock speed, though I cannot find any confirmation for that.

As I used the Chrony Alpha, I got used to how quick it was to set up. It sits on a table, making it ideal for my office, where the Oehler skyscreens are too high to align with the pellet trap. So convenience got me using the Chrony more and more. Now, I use the Oehler for articles and in the field, but the Chrony for everything else, which is more than 90 percent of my work.

Here's the crucial thing. The Chrony doesn't measure the velocity exactly. Neither does the Oehler. To measure exactly takes more accurate chronographs that are used by laboratories and by weapons testing stations. The skyscreens are separated by many feet distance and they are tailored for exactly what they're testing.

But for the hobbyist, a Shooting Chrony gives a number that can be trusted. It will be accurate within 99.5 percent accuracy. Not more than one deviation in 200. When measuring something traveling 1,000 f.p.s., the error rate is about 5 f.p.s. That is certainly accurate enough for what we do.

Dr. Ken Oehler once told me that the biggest error in any chronograph was the accurate spacing of the skyscreens. They assume a certain separation which is fed into the formula for velocity calculation; and when that is off by as little as one-eighth inch, the readings are wrong. The Shooting Chrony has solved that problem by its design. When the box unfolds, the skyscreens are always separated by the correct amount. That's a big plus, because other chronographs including the Oehler use a dimpled steel bar (conduit armor) to locate the screens.

Then, I did what almost all chronograph owners have done at least once. I shot too low and dented the chronograph case. I told Pyramyd Air about the damage, and they told me to keep the chronograph. I did and have used it ever since. By the way, I also shot up my Oehler skyscreens. I did that while working at AirForce testing the Condor. Same screen got shot--the rear one.

I shot my Alpha Chrony when I got too close to the rear skyscreen. No real harm done, and the instrument still works four years later.

What's the answer?
So, which chronograph is right for you? Well, if you want to check pellet gun velocities, I recommend a Shooting Chrony Alpha, Beta or even the model F1. The more expensive models have memories and can calculate statistics. The cheaper models cost less.

Are other chronographs okay? Absolutely. Shooting Chrony is the best-known brand on the market, but the others work just as well. Shooting Chrony has a rebuild program if you shoot up your chronograph, and that's a nice touch, plus I like the convenience of the box design. But any chronograph is better than no chronograph. Now that I've had one for a long time, I know more about why they're good. I've shown you several examples recently in this blog, and I will continue to do so as we tune the FWB 124, for example.

What about printers?
Printers are less reliable than chronographs. The one on my Oehler has never malfunctioned, but the Shooting Chrony Ballistic Printer has. It sometimes fails to advance the paper, resulting in several readings printing on top of each other. Pyramyd Air has recently experienced the same thing, so it happens but not on a regular basis.

If you buy a printer, be prepared to fiddle with it sometimes. It's great for long strings of shots, but I generally don't use it for short strings. Just make sure the paper advances after every shot.

Do you need a chronograph? Probably not, unless you know why you do. If all you like to do is shoot, you can forget a chronograph. But if you want to know the health of your airgun, a chronograph is a valuable piece of equipment to own.

The Crosman Silhouette PCP pistol - Part 3

noreply@blogger.com (B.B. Pelletier) — Mon, 08 Mar 2010 11:30:00 +0000

by B.B. Pelletier

Part 1
Part 2

Velocity test, part 2
Today, we're going to adjust the power of the Crosman Silhouette PCP pistol. This is a second velocity test for this gun. Before adjusting, I read the owner's manual, which in this case provides a lot of very instructional information about this procedure.

I learned that the fill pressure of the pistol is also adjustable, and the factory sets it at 2,900 psi and not 3,000. While the difference between 2900 and 3000 may seem small to you, look at the shot string I fired in Part 2 and notice that it took at least five shots to get up on the power curve when I filled the gun to 3,000. Son of a gun! Maybe Crosman knows what they're doing, and maybe we should be reading these manuals before shooting the airguns. And, when I say "we," I mean me.

Variable fill pressure
According to the manual, you can adjust the gun to operate on a fill of 2,500 psi, all the way up to a fill of 3,000 psi. This is achieved by adjusting two separate things. The first is the hammer-spring tension and the second is the hammer-stroke length. These work together to control the force of the impact on the valve stem as well as the dwell time that the valve remains open.

Delicate balance
However, as the air pressure inside the reservoir increases, the pressure that closes the valve changes, as well, so that also affects the length of time the valve remains open. What I'm saying is that there is not a straightforward adjustment. It's a balancing act between the fill pressure, the length of the hammer stroke and the tension on the hammer spring. You have to use a chronograph to adjust the gun--ther's no way around it. Without a chronograph, you're just guessing.

Crosman even provides you with a simple chart of the effects of adjusting both adjustments. Cutting to the bottom line, a long hammer stroke and heavy spring tension will boost the required fill pressure as high as it will go and give you the most powerful shots the pistol is capable of. Coincidentally, it will also give the greatest number of powerful shots that can be gotten from the pistol. Since that's all I'm after in today's report, that's what I did. Before I move on to the test, a word to everyone who has an interest in this pistol.

Get to know your airgun
Crosman has given us something rather unique in the Silhouette PCP. They have given us these two adjustments so we can adjust the gun to do exactly what we want to do. That's not common, and we need to take a moment to appreciate it.

When I worked at AirForce Airguns, we used to get questions all the time about what power adjustment wheel setting should someone use to shoot such-and-such a pellet and a velocity of X f.p.s. Well, heck, how should we know? How would anyone know who did not have that individual gun and a chronograph to do the necessary testing? Yet, these same people would get on the forums and trade their favorite power wheel setting back and forth as though they were precious formulae or something.

Here's a partial score: Cleveland 3.

Doesn't tell you very much, does it? Well, the adjustment of the Silhouette PCP is going to be very similar to that. It's an individual thing. Each gun is unique and each responds to adjustment in a slightly different way. If this is a gun you see in your future, plan on getting a chronograph to go with it, or plan on not adjusting the gun.

On to testing
This test will be different than most because I'll be adjusting the gun as I go. Whenever I make a change, I will note it and then continue with the string. I used the Crosman Premier 7.9-grain pellet.

For the first shot, I adjusted the gun following Crosman's instructions to the letter. The hammer-spring preload was adjusted to the max, and the stroke was adjusted as long as possible. The gun was filled to 3,000 psi and these shots resulted.

Shot...Velocity
1..........416
2..........422
3..........414
4..........417
5..........423
6..........425
7..........422

At this point, I realized that the gun wasn't set up to give me what I was after, which was maximum velocity, so something had to change. I turned the hammer-stroke adjustment in, which is contrary to what Crosman says to do.

8..........456
9..........461

This was working, so I turned the stroke-adjustment screw in some more.

10.........470

More in.

11.........492

More in.

12.........504

More in.

13.........497
14.........503
15.........502

At this point, I figured the hammer stroke was adjusted as well as it could be. Since the hammer-spring tension was supposed to be at the max, I turned the adjuster off a little.

16.........489
17.........484

Then, I put the tension back where it had been.

18.........501
19.........502
20.........496

At this point, I adjusted the stroke back out four turns.

21.........468

Then, two turns back in.

22.........488

All the way in (two more turns).

23.........500
24.........499
25.........495

The remaining pressure in the gun was 2,300 psi according to the onboard gauge.

26.........502
27.........498

Then, I shot two Crosman High Velocity Super Sonic pellets to see what the maximum velocity would be.

28.........622
29.........619

Then, I switched back to Premier lites.

30.........492
31.........498
32.........498
33.........498
34.........Did not register
35.........499
36.........494
37.........493
38.........491
39.........491
40.........489
41.........486
42.........487
43.........490
44.........481
45.........481
46.........478
47.........477
48.........470
49.........469
50.........465
51.........463

That's my report. With Premier lites, I got just over 500 f.p.s. With High Velocity hollowpoints--about 620.

The adjusting is easy but a chronograph is an absolute necessity, and I hope my report demonstrates why.

A shrine built for a Feinwerkbau 124 - Part 2

noreply@blogger.com (B.B. Pelletier) — Fri, 05 Mar 2010 11:30:00 +0000

by B.B. Pelletier

Part 1

My enshrined 124.

Before we begin, I have to share a laugh with all of you. This is especially for BG_Farmer, who last week had a discussion with me about unloading a muzzleloader.

I was out at the range yesterday and among the guns I shot was my new Thompson/Center Hawken. Of course, the sights were open post and bead. Shot No. 1 went through the X-ring at 50 yards. So, I loaded ball No. 2 very carefully. And, I put a cap on the nipple only after I was in firing position. Then--nothing! The cap fired but nothing else happened.

I waited for about 30 seconds for a hangfire, and then the truth of it hit me. For the first time in 45 years of shooting muzzleloaders, I had failed to put gunpowder into the rifle! So, my status as the Master Doofus of the Universe is, once again, secure--and I have a ball to get out of my barrel. Fortunately, I was using Triple Seven powder, a replica powder that doesn't attack the bore like black powder.

The first shot from the Hawken muzzleloader went through the X-ring at 50 yards. Shot two is still in the gun.

So, all that talk about how I never had to unload a ball before just went away. BG_Farmer, you may have 12 hours to gather a crowd to mock me.

Now, on to today's report

Well! This report that I thought would be finished today is turning into quite the crowd-pleaser. Just two days ago, we had a comment from a reader named Simon Kenton who remembers his 124 fondly as being a real tack-driver with the vintage Beeman Silver Jet pellets. He stockpiled 5,000 of them and hates to shoot them because they aren't available anymore.

I also remember Silver Jets as the best pellets for the 124 back in the 1970s and '80s. But when I competed in field target with a 124 in the late 1990s, I used the 7.9-grain Crosman Premier, which, at the time, was considered the most accurate pellet in the world. And I'm referring only to the Premiers that come in the brown cardboard box.

So, I'll test this 124 for accuracy with Silver Jets and Premiers, and perhaps even some JSB Exact 8.4-grain domes. Sorry Kevin, but I don't seem to have any Beeman FTS. I have Trophys, but that's all.

Please don't worry about the status of the gun. If something happens, it's only an airgun after all. I'll do everything to protect the exterior finish, but if I have to rebuild the powerplant for any reason, the rifle will only get better as a result. And after I rebuild it, it will last many decades longer than it would have with the original parts. We know that today, but of course it was not known when the 124 was new back in the 1970s.

For the collectors
And I need to clarify a point for all the collectors. I said in the first report that the 124 dated back to 1972, but that isn't entirely accurate. The basic rifle did exist at that time, but in the United States it was called the F-12. In Germany it was called the model 121. The 124 was first called by that designation in the 1974 edition of the Beeman catalog--the ultra-rare second edition. In that catalog, Beeman explains that the 124 is an upgraded version of the F-12 rifle that previously existed. That probably means the 124 designation started some time in 1973. Yes, there are FWB sport rifles marked as model 121, and yes, they were also capable of velocities up to 780 f.p.s. When the exact upgrades were made that differentiated a 124 from a 121, I do not know; but it sounds like a great research project for some day when I'm tired and just feel like reading.

The .22 rifle
To round out the report, there was a .22 caliber version of the same rifle that was marked as the model 127. They were never as popular when the gun was being made, because in those days .177 caliber was king in the United States. Finding a 127 is more difficult than finding a nice 124. However, for some reason, the price is seldom that much higher. The 124 still holds sway over the 127, even today.

The Beeman R5/model 125
Beeman also had a very small number of 124s barreled in .20 caliber and labeled model 125. It was never an official model, but Robert Beeman was very keen on .20 caliber and was seeking at the time to create an R5 rifle for his line. Beeman remembers three or four of these rifles being built by Feinwerkbau. They were not marked with the R5 designation, though that was the plan once production began.

What stopped the project cold was the requirement to purchase .20 caliber barrels 5,000 at a time. Beeman was prepared to order 500 of the R5s, but he wasn't ready to commit to 5,000, so the rifle was never built. Two of the prototypes, marked as "Sport 125 Cal.5/.22" were sold from the Beeman used gun list. The company also advertised the new R5 in their 10th edition catalog; but since there were no guns to sell when that catalog came out, the price was listed as NA. Catalog 10A followed the same year, and the R5 model was removed. Many people who have seen just the 10th edition of the Beeman catalog believe that a Beeman R5 existed, when in fact it never did. Robert Beeman wrote a very detailed description of all that transpired on this project for my magazine, Airgun Revue #3.

Today, I want to show you more of the contents of this sarcophagus. I've already discussed why filling the barrel with common grease is not a good protective measure, so let's look at some other preservation techniques that backfired.

Baggies don't protect
The orignal owner also felt that Beeman Silver Jets were the best pellet for the rifle. Instead of making a single storage compartment for the square cardboard box the Silver Jets came in, he divided 500 pellets into two plastic bags that were tucked into smaller asymmetric compartments. You can see them in small slots on either side (the top and bottom) of the rifle's forearm in the case. Unfortunately, he was unaware that plastic bags are not an effective vapor barrier. Over the years, the acid wood gasses corroded all the lead pellets to the point that they're now covered by a thick coat of white lead oxide powder. These pellets are now useless. I leave them in place as tutorials for whenever I show the rifle.

Beeman Silver Jets came in a square box with a padded styrofoam insert. These pellets are 20-30 years old and not oxidized.

Silver Jets on the left came from the box. The oxidized one on the right came out of one of two baggies inside the gun box.

Another fact the original owner was unaware of is the tendency for the original FWB piston seal material to dry rot. He purchased three spare piston seals that are now, sadly, hardened to the point of uselessness. The plastic bag they're in also did noting to preserve them. That's okay, though, because I would never put an original FWB piston seal back into a rifle anyway. I would use something made from modern synthetics. Feinwerkbau wasn't alone in making this mistake. Diana also used the same flawed material in their target air rifles and pistols of the 1970s, as did Walther.

You don't have to be an expert to see the damage here. The piston seal is dried and cracked from storage. Each of the three seals has two o-rings. The larger one is the breech seal, but I don't know where the smaller one goes. These are still usable.

The rest of the inventory
For those who like to keep score, the box contains these things, besides the rifle and owner's manual:

500 Silver Jet pellets
Beeman deluxe cleaning patches
Can of Birchwood Casey Sheath
Bottle of Beeman Silicone Chamber Oil
Bottle of Beeman Spring Cylinder Oil
Two stainless steel oiling needles
Leather sling
Three-piece sectional cleaning rod
Two .177 brass bore brushes
Beeman Pell Seat
Three piston seals
Three breech seals
One new mainspring
One aluminum trigger blade

None of these products have been used. They are there for "that day" when they are needed.

And, now, the velocity
Or not!

The Crosman Premier pellets refused to come out of the end of the barrel. They went perhaps 7/8 of the way through and stopped. I checked and replaced the breech seal, but no luck. That means the piston seal has finally given up the ghost. The last time I shot this rifle through a chronograph, it registered about 760 f.p.s. with Premier Lites, but that time is past. And the parts in the gun are of no help in fixing the situation.

I left the first part of the blog exactly as I wrote it, so all of this that you are reading has transpired before your eyes. I will now tune the gun with a modern FWB 124 tuneup and then test it for you.

The Bronco from Air Venturi - Part 5

noreply@blogger.com (B.B. Pelletier) — Thu, 04 Mar 2010 11:30:00 +0000

by B.B. Pelletier

The entries for Pyramyd Air's February contest are posted on Airgun Arena. Thanks to everyone who participated and congratulations to the winners!

Part 1
Part 2
Part 3
Part 4

Air Venturi Bronco.

Today, I'll test the Air Venturi Bronco with a better scope. Last time, I used a scope adjusted for 100-yard parallax and the target wasn't too clear. This time, I mounted a Leapers 3-9x40 AO scope with an illuminated reticle. My scope was an older version of this same scope.

Leapers 3-9x40 scope fit the Bronco well.

A delight to shoot
I'd forgotten how comfortable the Bronco is to shoot. Rediscovering that was so pleasurable that I did some additional experiments for you. For starters, I held the rifle like a deer rifle, the way a new airgunner might. The Bronco responded with half-dollar-sized groups at 25 yards. While those look good to new shooters, the rifle is capable of much better accuracy. The tight hold works, but only to a point.

Then, I shot with the rifle rested directly on the bag. Sprayed pellets all over the place, just as you would expect.

I read on one of the forums that someone thought the wrist was too thick for younger shooters. Well, of course it is! If they hold the rifle like a deer rifle, the wrist is way too thick. But that's not the way to hold a breakbarrel springer. You have to pretend you're holding a 1903 Springfield and place your thumb along the wrist rather than over it. Then, the artillery hold will start paying off.

This is the wrong way to hold a spring rifle. Get that thumb off the wrist.

This is the proper way to rest the thumb on a spring rifle wrist.

The bottom line is the Bronco likes a light artillery hold the best.

Premier Lites
The Crosman Premier 7.9-grain pellet grouped acceptably well at 25 yards, though I did feel that a repeatable light hold was crucial to good accuracy. Fail to hold it that way, and pellets stray from the group.

Ten Premiers at 25 yards with the proper "dead" hold technique.

Ten Premiers at 25 yards. Seven with the proper "dead" hold technique and three with the thumb rested over the wrist. The scope was adjusted from the first group.

I also tried a bucket load of other pellets, searching for one that was more tolerable of the hold than Premier Lites. I tried Premier heavies, Gamo Match, Air Arms domes, JSB Exact domes in the 8.4-grain weight and Gamo Master Points. Like last time, the JSBs showed some promise, though the Premier lites clearly beat them in 10-shot groups. Then, I found what I was looking for.

Years ago, I owned a .458 Winchester Magnum rifle (an elephant rifle) for which I handloaded. My load was so soft that it hardly recoiled, yet it always sent the 550-grain lead bullet to the same place. It was a delight to shoot. Most Hakim air rifles will do the same thing with RWS Superpoints. Well, I found what the Bronco likes.

Beeman Kodiaks, which are also H&N Baracudas, need very little in the way of an artillery hold, yet they seem to go to the same place every time. They're no more accurate than Premier Lites, but they sure are easier to shoot in this rifle! They're my top pick for pellets, now that I've tested them.

Ten Kodiaks with a sloppy artillery hold. They all seem to want to go to the same place.

The next test will be with a Mendoza peep sight mounted. This will be as much a test of that specific sight as of the Bronco.

Chronograph tips

noreply@blogger.com (B.B. Pelletier) — Wed, 03 Mar 2010 11:30:00 +0000

by B.B. Pelletier

I've probably said these things before, but they're fundamental and bear repeating. With more of you starting to use chronographs, you need to be aware of some of the basic operational tips for the equipment.

Before we go any farther, know that I'm limiting my remarks to the Shooting Chrony-type of chronograph that uses an incandescent or natural light (sunlight) source. There are various chronographs that use infrared light sources and these notes do not necessarily apply.

Lighting outdoors
Outdoors you want an even source of light, with an overcast sky being the best. The worst is direct sunlight falling on the skyscreens. That condition is what the diffusers are for, so use them. A day where clouds are being blown all around is a tough day to chronograph outdoors.

Lighting indoors
Fluorescent lighting does not work with a chronograph. A fluorescent light flickers at speeds imperceptible to the human eye (most of the time), but the sensitive skyscreen will be set off. When that happens, you'll get spurious readings, errors and half-readings. That can be a big problem, now that many households are converting from incandescent lighting to fluorescent. You may have to kill all the lights in the room to get the chronograph to work.

Mercury vapor lights found in warehouses and workshops can also be problematic. Whenever your chronograph starts firing on its own, you probably have a lighting problem.

Direct light sources are another way around indoor lighting problems. There are commercial skyscreen lights you can buy or you can make a light bar of your own with parts bought at a hardware store. A much simpler way, if you shoot in a room that has a ceiling painted a solid light color, is to reflect a bright light off the ceiling and let the skyscreens look at that light. This is how I do it in my office, which has a 10-foot ceiling. I use a photo light, but you can use a 500-watt halogen work light shined upward.

Chronograph tips
Here's the big one. Keep the muzzle of your gun at least a foot back from the starting skyscreen. This is especially true when testing the powerful super magnums, such as the new Benjamin Trail NP XL1100 I tested for you on Monday. In fact, it was while testing that rifle that the idea for this report was born. I held the muzzle of the gun too close to the start screen a couple times and got several shots that measured 300 f.p.s. slower than they should have. That's not the gun acting up. That's the chronograph operator's fault.

If we had a super-fast video camera filming the muzzle of a spring gun, you would be able to see a ball of pressurized air that comes out of the gun ahead of the pellet. If the pellet travels at 900 f.p.s., this ball of air goes about 1100 f.p.s. for a couple inches. If the muzzle is held too close, the skyscreen senses the ball of compressed air and starts the clock. Once the clock has been started the pellet has no effect on it anymore. Of course, the pellet passing over the stop screen stops the clock and now you have a longer interval on the clock than the pellet really should have registered. More time equals a slower pellet transit time, hence the readings are slower than they should have been. Just by backing the muzzle up 12 inches from the start screen, you take care of 100 percent of this problem with all spring guns. Maybe with some powerful pneumatics like the Condor you should back up 18 inches. And certainly with a big bore I would back up 4-5 feet. The pressurized air will still be seen by the skyscreen, but by backing up you allow the pellet/bullet to trip the sensor first.

Tip #2--stay level
Both skyscreens look in the same direction. If the chronograph is flat on a table, both skyscreens should look directly upward so they are set up to calculate the passage of a pellet that flies perpendicular to their line of sight.

If you angle a shot through the line of the skyscreens, the time it takes to trip them will be longer that it would have been if they went through at a perfect perpendicular angle. That's because an angled line through two planes is always longer than one that passes through perpendicular.

The slanted line through the top chronograph is a longer path, resulting is lower indicated velocities. The bottom chronograph shows how the rifle should be fired.

Maybe the explanation is difficult to follow, but look at the drawings. I can slow down any gun by slanting the line of the pellet through the skyscreens. Try it yourself and you'll see what I mean.

Tip #3--clean those skyscreens
If your chrono has any age to it, your skyscreen shields are dirty. Those are the clear plastic "lenses" that cover and protect the real sensors. Use a Q-tip to clean them, and your numbers will be easier to obtain.

Tip #4--watch your angle
As well as watching the up/down angle through the screens, you also need to be careful of the sideways angle. You will get an "Error 2" message when you miss screen two, which is the most common error you'll see, because the start screen (screen 1) is closer to the gun and harder to miss.

Well, those are some things to think about when you use your chronograph next time. They're wonderful instruments that respond best if a little care is used during their operation.

A shrine built for a Feinwerkbau 124 - Part 1

noreply@blogger.com (B.B. Pelletier) — Tue, 02 Mar 2010 11:30:00 +0000

by B.B. Pelletier

Before I start today's blog, I want to let you know that Pyramyd Air has slashed the price of the Hammerli Pneuma…by almost 30%! It's dropped from $495.95 to $349.95. This is a huge deal and a great way to enter the PCP arena without spending a fortune. I don't know how long the price will stay at that level, so don't hesitate if this is a gun you've been eyeing. Now, on to today's blog.

When I lived in Maryland, I had many friends who were airgun enthusiasts. We not only met at the local airguns shows, one of which we ran in Damascus in August each year, but we also competed in field target matches and 10-meter pistol matches throughout the year. One day, while waiting for my group to shoot in a match down in Rockville, a friend showed me something he had just acquired. It was a long wooden case that any gun owner would know had to contain a gun.

When he opened the case I saw a sight that quickened my heart. Inside was a like-new FWB 124 and accessories, all in like-new condition. I had to own this rifle, so I immediately set about building an acceptable trade for it. Fortunately, the man who owned it is a good friend and went relatively easy on me, though he didn't have to. I wanted this gun so bad I would have given almost anything to own it. I still probably gave too much for it, but there really are no equivalents to compare to.

This FWB 124 was enshrined for all time by its former owner. If you look carefully, you can see that there are three padded projections in the box lid that press down on the rifle when the lid is closed. These projections prevent the gun from moving.

One thing my friend made me promise is that I would document the rifle so everybody could share in the experience he and I had when we looked in the case. I had no problem with that request, for indeed, that was part of the reason I wanted the gun--to be able to research it and discover just what it was. When I got it home, I immediately set to the task.

I examined every accessory inside the case, as well as the case itself. It was custom-built of pine for this rifle and all the items inside. The wood was of cabinet quality, which is to say clear and free from knots. But it was nothing special or out of the ordinary. The larger pieces were made from plywood. You'll notice that the compartments are asymetric.

The wood was painted a flat brown and fitted with utilitarian hinges and clasps to hold it closed. The man I got the gun from had removed the center clasp and replaced it with a carry handle, which was a nickel-plated drawer handle, so the box now does not close as tightly as the maker had intended, but it's easier to carry. Obviously, the maker had not envisioned transporting the gun as much as simply storing it, which was a big clue as to what was going on. All eight corners of the box are reinforced with brass edge protectors. The workmanship of the build is top-quality.

The rifle was very early. I could tell that by the older-style black plastic trigger that was offered only in the 1970s, and by the address of the Beeman company stamped on the gun. San Anselmo was their very first address, when the Beemans were operating out of their home.

The San Anselmo address on this 124 marks it as sold from the original location of Beeman Precision Airguns.

When I examined the contents of the box, I was struck by their age. These items had been purchased from the Beeman Precision Airguns company back at the start of their existence! They bore the image of Boswell Bear, something that went away very early in the life of the company. I knew these labels because I had been a Beeman customer almost from the start in 1973, but I had not seen labels like these for two decades! Clearly, this gun and its accessories were very old, yet they looked like they were brand new.

Boswell Bear was on the earliest labels. This one has a San Rafael address.

I contacted Robert Beeman about the San Anselmo address on the gun and the Boswell Bear labels. He told me these were the very first labels his company ever used.

However, there were also some anomalies among the things in the box. When the FWB 124 first came out in about 1972, it had a plastic trigger blade. Oh, how the airgunners of the time complained about that! Why would a top-quality maker like Feinwerkbau put a cheap plastic trigger on any gun they would make? They complained throughout the decade of the '70s. About 1980, the company finally brought out an aluminum trigger blade. First, the guns came out with it installed, and then several years later it was offered as a replacement part that Beeman sold as a retrofit.

The aluminum trigger blade was made to replace the earlier plastic blade. This one is a retrofit part but was never installed.

So, there was an aluminum trigger blade in the box with this rifle that had to have been added years after the box was built. Obviously, this set was a work in progress. No attempt had been made to update the trigger in the rifle, since the original plastic trigger was (and still is) in the gun. And I know from experience with many other 124s that the plastic trigger will not break in normal use, so why did the owner buy the aluminum blade?

Canopic jars
When Egyptians mummified a body, some of the organs were removed and placed in canopic jars, each with its own separate guardian. There were no jars inside the gun box, but there were separate sections that housed fresh vitals for a renewal of the powerplant. A new replacement mainspring was housed on a rod set into the box lid and no fewer than three fresh piston seals were in a special compartment of the box, where they awaited the day of renewal.

When I was a kid, I played cops 'n' robbers a lot. The imaginary gun I used never ran out of bullets. It was becoming clear to me that the original owner of this 124 wanted the same thing from his gun--a spring gun that never failed. He stockpiled the parts that he knew would wear out over time. When they wore out--presumably from use--their replacements were on hand to keep the show rolling. Only--this rifle was never used!

Plugged up
Unlike my cops 'n' robbers weapon, a well-used right hand with a two-finger barrel that fired tens of thousands of times, the owner of this 124 never fired a single shot with it. He couldn't have, for the barrel was completely plugged with grease!

When I went to chronograph the rifle to ascertain the state of tune, I was surprised to find the bore completely obstructed. A patch pushed by a cleaning rod pushed out many inches of petroleum grease, the common kind used for general lubrication. It took some time to clean out all this worthless grease, and I was adamant to do it before the barrel was ruined. What the first owner did not understand was that plain grease is not a good preservative. Over the years, it dries out and hardens. It then allows moisture to enter and collect against the metal and the barrel would have rusted slowly from the inside out.

Cosmoline is a military preservative that's often used on guns put into long-term storage. It provides a moisture barrier for a period of time, though it, too, has a definite period of useful life beyond which it offers no protection. While it resembles regular grease, it's not the same thing at all, and grease is not an acceptable substitute fort it. You're far better off with a clean bore lightly coated with oil, the way the military tells you to store firearms. But the grease in this gun was a big clue about what was happening.

He may have shot the rifle a few times, but the finish on the barrel near the muzzle wears quickly from handling and this one is still like new. So, not many shots (if any) were ever fired. I've also shot it a few times, but I don't take it out that much, either.

The status of the gun
The rifle was like new in unfired condition when I got it. The bore was plugged with grease. The rifle was surrounded with the parts needed to keep it operating for over 20 years of hard use, yet it had seemingly never been used. It looked like the original owner had cherished this rifle without ever actually using it. He entombed it in what he had hoped was a very protective cocoon to guarantee its survival into the future, and yet it was a future that didn't include him.

I obtained the gun just after the new century began. The first owner had passed away, which is how the man I bought the gun from got it. So, this gun, which was preserved for all time, had now outlived its first owner--it's creator, if you consider the whole package.

In our next look, I'll show you other strange things in the box and will chronograph the rifle for you.

Benjamin Trail NP XL1100 - Part 2

noreply@blogger.com (B.B. Pelletier) — Mon, 01 Mar 2010 11:30:00 +0000

by B.B. Pelletier

Part 1

Well, the replacement Benjamin Trail NP XL1100 I now have is up to spec. And it doesn't cock easily, like I said last week. It cocks with 47 lb.. of effort. Now, that's on the low side of heavy, and if the power is anywhere near the claimed 30 foot-pounds, then this is still a great hunting rifle, but by no means should it be thought of as a plinker.

I want to warn you new airgunners about something. Some new shooters will read the specs only and pick the cheapest, most powerful air rifle they can find. Then they get it and are overwhelmed by the size and the effort required to cock the rifle. I see the same thing in the world of firearms, where someone buys an S&W .500 Magnum and then resells it after only 6 shots. They never imagined the tremendous recoil such a gun generates. New England Firearms (NEF) chambers their little Handi-Rifle for the S&W .500 magnum and that's another one I see for sale all the time, along with a lot of Marlin Guide Guns in .45-70.

Folks, the Benjamin Trail XL 1100 is a large air rifle that takes a lot of effort to cock. Buy it for hunting--not as a general-purpose plinking rifle. I don't know how much plainer I can make it.

Shooting behavior
The rifle lunges forward with the shot, just like any super magnum air rifle. Thankfully, it has a Weaver base, so scope mounting shouldn't be a problem. The noise still seems very low, especially given the power.

And it dieseled with every shot during this test. Please understand the terminology I'm using. Dieseling is present in all powerful spring guns on every shot. It is NOT the loud explosion you hear with the shot. That is called a detonation. The Benjamin Trail did not detonate even once during this test. We expect a gun like this to diesel, and it does. It also exhausts a lot of smoke because it is new. That should diminish in a couple hundred shots.

The trigger-pull is long because I haven't yet adjusted it. Once adjusted, it should be very short and crisp. I'll adjust it and report the results to you.

Crosman Premiers
The standard test pellet for this rifle must be the .22-caliber Crosman Premier. At 14.3 grains, a Premier must travel at 972 f.p.s. to develop 30 foot-pounds. In the test rifle, Premiers averaged 882 f.p.s., which is a muzzle energy of 24.71 foot-pounds. The spread went from 864 f.p.s. to 901 f.p.s., so a total spread of 37 f.p.s. That may stabilize a little as the rifle breaks in.

RWS Hobbys
Spring-piston airguns usually perform best with lighter pellets, so I tested the 11.9-grain RWS Hobby pellet next. The average velocity was 940 f.p.s., which works out to a muzzle energy of 23.35 foot-pounds. The spread went from 928 f.p.s. to 948 f.p.s., so a tighter spread of just 20 f.p.s. This result was a surprise. I expected energy to rise with Hobbys, so perhaps the rifle likes heavier pellets.

JSB Exact Jumbo Heavys
Finally, I tried JSB Exact Jumbo Heavys. At 18.1 grains, they're an ideal weight for long-range shooting and hunting. They averaged 783 f.p.s., with a spread from 777 to 792--at 15 f.p.s., it was the tightest of the session. The average muzzle energy worked out to 24.65 foot-pounds, or very close to the Premiers.

So, this test rifle develops nowhere near 30 foot-pounds of power, or even the 26 foot-pound lower limit I was offering as an acceptable margin of error. This is a 25 foot-pound airgun at best.

Setting the claim aside, 25 foot-pounds is respectable for a breakbarrel springer. Because this is a gas-spring gun, hunters should love it. And the price is extremely low for all that you get. Don't take it off your list for missing the claim, just know what to expect so you won't be disappointed.

Other Benjamin Trail XL 1100s may exhibit greater energy than this test rifle, so I wouldn't be surprised to see some hot ones making as much as 27 foot-pounds. And the test gun may speed up a bit as it breaks in. I will check it after the accuracy test to see if there's any trend in that direction.

I'm glad I don't judge beauty contests

noreply@blogger.com (B.B. Pelletier) — Fri, 26 Feb 2010 11:30:00 +0000

by B.B. Pelletier

I get burned out on airguns from time to time. When it happens, I can remember being excited over this or that gun in the past, but nothing I see, touch or shoot at this time evokes the slightest measure of appreciation. You could hand me an HW55 Tyrolean with a full bas-relief stock worthy of the renaissance--and I would yawn.

When that happens, I have to do something else. For years, something else has been shooting firearms, reloading and casting bullets. Anything to break the connection with pellet guns for a time. Unfortunately, a number of circumstances--the weather, a heavy work schedule and my recent illness--have all conspired to keep me from going to the range since before Christmas. I'm ready to pull my hair out, if I had anything to grab onto.

Then, I happened to mention that I rode a BMW R26 while in college in the 1960s. A thoughtful reader sent me a link to a You Tube video of a prima R 26 that the owner starts and runs while walking the viewer around on a tour. Seeing that video was a mini-holiday for me.

The BMW R26 single-cylinder motorcycle is like an HW55 on wheels.

That got me looking at all the vintage Beemer motorcycle videos on You Tube and there are quite a few of them. That got me searching eBay Motors for what one of these treasures might cost--not that I would ever buy one. Five thousand $US seems to be the going price for a refurbished bike from Indonesia. Another $1,500 transport to the U.S. and who knows what to clear customs would get you a restored bike in beautiful condition--if it all worked out, that is.

That got me searching for a vintage motorcycle sales here in the U.S. and, lo and behold, I found one. A great one! Walnecks.com has lists of vintage and antique motorcycles that will astound you. There are many old R12/R26/R27 bikes to choose from. But if you're an Indian fan, and I'm talking about the original Indian motorcycles now, then there are Chiefs, Scouts and even a couple straight fours. I didn't find a Scott Flying Squirrel or a Sunbeam, but who knows what'll be there next week?

What does this have to do with airguns? Nothing--yet. But you know that it's coming.

And here it is. When I absolutely cannot look at one more synthetic thumbhole stock wrapped around a bucking, buzzing thousand-foot-per-second .177 breakbarrel with a beer-can trigger, I go to the American Vintage Airguns Forum. I call it my quiet place. Here the guns are old and so are the contributors. If they're young, they sure don't act it. Everyone respects the vintage stuff made in the days before the velocity races began. It's like an airgun show on the internet.

A bas-relief Tyrolean stock. This is an Aydt schuetzen rifle, but that isn't the point. This beauty is what puts me at rest when I'm bummed out.

The nice thing about this place are the friends you make. They're willing to bend over backwards to help a fellow airgunner. I think they're as nice as the readers of this blog, if you can believe that! If you have a question, they'll try to find the answer for you. And some of our most notable readers are also over there, so you won't feel lonely.

Here's a tastefully engraved Stevens scheutzen rifle. When I see work like this, I can't take my eyes away.

This Martini Swiss schuetzen rifle has traditional Swiss engraving and carving. You don't even have to shoot guns like these to enjoy them.

Anyway, that's how I'm feeling today. I'm gonna get out to the range next week and bust some caps to get my sanity back--or what passes for it.

And THAT, my friends, is why I'm glad I don't judge beauty contests.

The Crosman Silhouette PCP pistol - Part 2

noreply@blogger.com (B.B. Pelletier) — Thu, 25 Feb 2010 11:30:00 +0000

by B.B. Pelletier

Part 1

Well, I wanted to post the velocity results of the Benjamin Trail NP XL1100 today, so the first thing I did was measure the cocking effort for you. No more than 32 lbs., according to my bathroom scale. Wow, I thought. Crosman has found a way around the laws of physics. I'll take three, please!

Then, just as I returned to my desk an email arrived from Crosman informing me that the cocking effort I had inquired about was supposed to be around 38 lbs. Oh, oh! A few shots through the Chrony confirmed that this test rifle was not up to that spec.

The bottom line is this one has to go back to Crosman. They will expedite shipment of a replacement, and I must retract everything I said about the cocking effort until I test that rifle. I still am wildly impressed by what I see, and now I'll get to see a second one.

Sometimes it even rains in Camelot. And when it rains, we make mud pies and splash in the puddles until mother calls us to dinner.

So, casting about for alternative fun, my eyes fell on the Crosman Silhouette PCP pistol, which reminded me of their claim that it would give 50 good shots with a 7.9-grain pellet at 450 f.p.s. So, I decided to do the velocity test today. Actually, I'm doing only the first half of the velocity test, because I was reminded by one of our sharp readers that the Silhouette PCP has a power adjustment. Yes, besides all the wonderful things you already know, you can also adjust the velocity--up to 550 f.p.s. with a 7.9 pellet, says Crosman. That needs to be tested, as well. But, today, I'm doing the yeoman's work of testing the gun as it comes from the factory. Fifty shots at 450 f.p.s. with a 7.9-grain pellet.

Airing up
The pistol arrived with a caretaker charge of about 1,000 psi, and it needs to go to 3,000 for a full fill. This time I used my carbon fiber tank and filled until the needle was centered on the 3,000 mark. The pistol's internal gauge read 2,900 at that point, so the two disagree by 100 psi. Good thing I'm not anal!

How many shots?
Most of you regular readers know the drill by now. I start shooting and record every velocity that comes. If the Chrony misses one, I put in a line to indicate there was a shot that wasn't recorded. That's important, because that unrecorded shot uses just as much air as one that was. After the string is over, we'll look at it to see what we can learn.

Here we go. 3,000 psi fill, Crosman Premier 7.9-grain pellet.

Shot…Velocity
1………..439
2………..442
3………..438
4………..437
5………..446
6………..445
7………..----
8………..444 (Start useful string at 2,800 psi onboard)
9………..447
10………449
11………451
12………446
13………454
14………449
15………446
16………455
17………455
18………456
19………453
20………451
21………454
22………453
23………460
24………460
25………462
26………459
27………455
28………459
29………460
30………464
31………462
32………466
33………463
34………462
35………465
36………469*
37………464
38………466
39………469*
40………462
41………464
42………463
43………460
44………463
45………465
46………459
47………461
48………464
49………457
50………459
51………457
52………460
53………460
54………456
55………458
56………460
57………461
58………459
59………458
60………460
61………---
62………455
63………460
64………454
65………457
66………452
67………444
68………447
69………448
70………447
71………442
72………441(end useful string at 1,600 psi)
73………438
74………440
75………434
76………435
77………423
78………424
79………424

*Fastest shot in string

With a shot string laid out like that, we can determine a few things. For starters, we can see that Crosman was conservative in their estimates of the useful number of shots. I put in a start point and a stop point on the string. Using the point I chose, which started when the onboard pressure gauge read 2,800 psi, and running to the stop point, when the onboard gauge read 1,600 psi, there are 65 shots in my string.

Another thing we know is the average velocity in the selected string is 457 f.p.s. and the maximum velocity spread is 28 feet per second. The claim of 450 f.p.s. was right on the money. You could cut this data string many different ways to accomplish other things, such as a greater number of shots, for instance, but it does demonstrate that the Silhouette PCP is everything Crosman has claimed and more.

My final comment about today's test is that I am, once again, impressed with Crosman's grasp of a metered valve in a precharged airgun. They're using a fill pressure spread of 1,200 psi to get 65 shots within 28 f.p.s. of one another. That's exacting performance on just a trifle of air.

More on how the gun shoots
I must comment that the bolt on this pistol is far smoother than any I have seen. It's made from hardened steel, and the bolt shaft is a wider diameter; when you pull back on the handle, there's never any binding or hesitation. The action simply cocks smoothly as a non-airgunner would assume that it should. Many years of experience with similar bolt-action pistols that were not this smooth have distorted my perceptions.

And the promised look at the trigger
This time I removed the sideplate for a look at the trigger. As you can see, it's a simple, one-lever type. Some smoothing of the sear that engages the hammer would probably pay off, but don't use a file! Use a hard stone and don't go too far. I doubt these parts are case-hardened any deeper than about 0.15"--if that. Follow up with moly grease. You're interested in stoning a smoother surface--not a perfect mirror finish, which would probably ruin these parts by cutting through the hardened shell and allowing the part to wear.

Not much to it. The trigger blade pushes the front of the sear up against the spring tension you set. The rear of the sear pivots down and away from the hammer, releasing it.

The trigger has a spring shim on the back side to remove slop in the pull. All the pins could take the tiniest bit of grease.

Next, I'll try the Silhouette PCP with an optional peep sight Crosman sent with the gun.

Disassembling and assembling a TX200

noreply@blogger.com (B.B. Pelletier) — Wed, 24 Feb 2010 11:30:00 +0000

by B.B. Pelletier

I'm doing this report for Slinging Lead so he can see what the inside of his TX200 looks like. The work to disassemble and take photos took a total of 30 minutes, so that will be how long a disassembly should take after the first time.

Step 1- remove the action from the stock
First, we'll remove the action from the stock. If you have a scope mounted, take it off to make this easier. I use a sandbag bench rest to hold the rifle while I'm working on it, but you can rig up something with old rags or towels.

Four screws hold the action in the stock. Remove the two forearm screws first, then flip the rifle on its back and remove the two triggerguard screws. No special order for this. Next, separate the stock from the action.

Remove both forearm stock screws.

The triggerguard is held by two different-sized screws. The back one is the same size as the stock screw, but the front one is larger.

When the last stock screw comes out, the action will separate from the stock.

The action is out of the stock.

Step 2- remove the restraining bolt
In this step, you'll take all the preload tension off the mainspring. The trigger housing will be pushed backward about three-quarters of an inch. This is the step where a mainspring compressor is needed for most spring rifles, but not for the TX200.

This bolt in front of the trigger housing is what holds the action together. It has a flat on either side to accept a wrench.

You don't need a 12-inch Crescent wrench like this to start the bolt. It was simply handy.

Once the bolt has been started, you can hand-turn it the rest of the way. Put a little tension on the back of the trigger housing by pressing straight down on the action. In this photo, the back of the trigger housing is pressed against the table.

When the bolt releases, the trigger housing will move backward about 3/4". It's under 15-20 lbs. of force. To show this movement, I relaxed tension on the action.

The trigger housing slides straight out the back of the gun.

The mainspring and spring guide with washer comes out next.

Step 3- slide out the piston and you're done
The next "step" is really just a continuation of what we've been doing. The piston is not held in the gun by anything at this point, but I'm showing you how to push it out with a small screwdriver.

I'm showing where to push with a screwdriver blade to slide out the piston, but nothing holds it in. It'll come out all by itself.

And there's the piston.

One more thing
You can do a mainspring replacement, a lube tune or a piston seal replacement with just this much disassembly. There's really no need to go any farther. However, the sliding compression chamber will not come out of the gun at this point. One more thing must be done to take it out.

This is where the underlever is attached to the cocking link. That circular pin near the bottom center of the picture needs to come out if you want to remove the sliding compression chamber. The pin has a circlip on either side. Pop off one of them and push the pin out the other way.

When the link is separated from the underlever, it's possible to slide the compression chamber to the point at which the cocking link can be disconnected from the sliding chamber. I have not gone that far here and doubt I've ever taken the chamber out of this rifle because there's just no need to.

Please don't start sending me lists of other airguns you want to disassemble. The TX200 is so simple that I didn't mind showing it here. Other guns can require four times the work to achieve the same goal. The ironic thing is that the TX is one of the few airguns that ever need to be disassembled in the first place.

Assembly
Yes, I'm going to tell you to assemble the rifle in reverse order because there simply are no tips needed to put it back together. Naturally, you'll have to press down on the action to get the bolt hole in the trigger housing to align, but isn't that obvious? Once you've done this job yourself, you'll agree with me.

Benjamin Trail NP XL1100 - Part 1

noreply@blogger.com (B.B. Pelletier) — Tue, 23 Feb 2010 11:30:00 +0000

by B.B. Pelletier,

Two things about today's report. It will be our first look at a Benjamin Trail-series rifle, and it sets the stage for the test of the new Benjamin Trail NP in .25 caliber. We want to be ready for that, later this year, and this should get us there.

We first saw the Benjamin Trail series rifles at the 2010 SHOT Show. We heard about them before then; and, of course, we've regarded the older Crosman Nitro Piston rifles for the past year, so this marked a good transition point for switching the Nitro Piston from the Crosman brand to Benjamin. When you look at the Crosman breakbarrels online, you'll note that the Nitro Piston Short Strokes are all gone--at least at Pyramyd Air.

Today, we'll start looking at the Benjamin Trail NP XL1100, which is .22 caliber. My first impression was, "Wow!" That came from the outside of the sealed box. I know that writers never say bad things about the products they review, but again I say, "Wow!"

I'm showing you the box so you can see exactly what I'm talking about.

Here's what made me say that. First, the box says it includes a Centerpoint 3-9x40 scope, so no thought need be given to scoping. It's all inside the box. Next, my eye was caught by the claim of 1,100 f.p.s. from a .22-caliber pellet rifle. Now, that velocity has been achieved before in .22 caliber, but not by a springer, I don't think. And, this time the box also says 30 foot-pounds. There's no mistaking what they're claiming. The springer that Pyramyd Air will sell you for a penny under $300 will offer the same power that the old Beeman Crow Magnum did a decade ago (in .25 caliber) for $1,175--without the scope. Folks, if that isn't progress then I don't know what is.

Still scanning the outside of the box, I saw a round sticker that tells me they tossed in a $20 sling, as well. I shouldn't tell you that because you'll all expect one; but whenever I see a sticker, I know the offer will last for only a limited time. But the deal is that the Trail guns have sling swivels built right into them, and this is a way to get lethargic writers like me to notice them…and maybe even install a sling and take a picture.

Note that I did not say sling swivel studs. Oh, no! That's so--yesterday! I said swivels, which include a front swivel that we haven't seen since the FWB 124D went away in the 1990s, I think. Boy does that swivel relieve me of answering a lot of questions because with a .22-caliber pellet rifle this powerful you just know that the primary users are going to be hunters.

The only hangup I have with this beautiful box (Crosman wins packaging awards in industry, you know) is the wording that explains that the gun is powered by a nitrogen piston instead of a spring. I have become so used to the industry standard terminology of gas spring that I would prefer they call it a nitrogen-filled gas spring. I will be explaining how it works for many years to all the newcomers who are not yet familiar with the gas springs in their minivans and SUVs. But, you know, it wasn't mine to name, and Crosman, as a corporation, seems to know the airgun market as least as well as any dedicated airgunner. Besides, at the age of 62, I'm entitled to be somewhat crotchety. It's part of my old-guy persona.

The last impression the box gives is that the metal finish is deep and polished. Of course, that can be done in Photoshop; but if the owner discovers something else inside, it may not work out so well. Since the intent is to open the box, I hoped they weren't exaggerating.

The box is opened
Okay, so the gun inside doesn't look like the picture on the outside. It looks even better. (Ha, ha. I bet you could have guessed I was going to say that.) But in this case it really does. The metalwork is about as shiny as the picture, but the wood stock is quite a bit more graceful than pictured. It's tastefully checkered on the forearm and pistol grip, and the Benjamin name is carved into the bottom of the forearm. Crosman told me they never want anyone to have to hunt for a Benjamin in a rifle rack and I like that attitude. If you've got it, flaunt it.

Oh, and that exciting new Weaver rail is there, awaiting the time when I mount the scope. What a wonderful idea.

So, I picked it up. Oh, oh. BIG GUN! Oh, my gosh. They are trying to get 30 foot pounds out of a .22-caliber springer. It's sore arms ahead!

No, it's not!

I will not reveal the cocking effort in today's report (because I haven't tested it yet), but my left arm tells me that if you can cock a Beeman R1, you'll be able to cock this gun. Oh, and guess what, kids? The safety is manual! Yes, they're trusting the owner with the main operational safety responsibility. Airports can't even trust the public to flush a toilet, but Crosman trusts us to shoot safely.

In defense of the airports, I think they made the right decision, too. I'm just glad that none of those disgusting people ever fly on any of my flights!

You know that free sling? They could have just thrown in a cheapie $6 Uncle Mikes web sling and called it a $20 value, but they didn't. They included a PADDED carry sling with the Benjamin name embroidered on the outside. When I see fine touches like that, I wonder how I can buy some Crosman stock. This is real "Santa's elves" thinking, in my book.

This is no afterthought. They gave this a lot of attention. It makes you wonder, if they paid this much attention to a small detail like this, how nice is the rifle?

It's too early to talk about the sound signature, except to say that it's REALLY quiet! With my steel bullet trap being just five feet away, I can't hear anything other than the impact of the pellet. I need to get this gun outside. And, no, I'm not stupid enough to shoot this rifle point blank into my freshly-filled silent pellet trap. Maybe after 10K shots are in there I will, but right now I use the serious trap for for airguns this powerful at close range.

The trigger looks like the regular NPSS trigger I played with last year, so I'll be tweaking it and reporting on it then.

Bottom line (for whoever asked me to hurry this report along) is that I like very much what I see thus far. If this rifle is accurate and if it comes even close to 30 foot-pounds (which I will now define as anything above 26 foot-pounds with the right pellets), then they aren't going to be able to keep these in stock. When I saw this at the SHOT Show, I envisioned a 24-26 foot-pound gun. That would have been wonderful. Can it be that they've exceeded my expectations?

Refillable 12-gram CO2 cartridges

noreply@blogger.com (B.B. Pelletier) — Mon, 22 Feb 2010 11:30:00 +0000

by B.B. Pelletier

Sorry about the blog last week. I was ill and out of my head part of the time, so I forgot about the huge three-part report on air transfer ports back in 2008 and did another one just like them only smaller on Friday. We also got some questions that I said I would blog, and I think today's report is for one of them, though I cannot find the original question. So, I might miss the crux of the question, but I hope to show you something many of you have never seen or even heard of.

I also think I told Matt that I would shoot firearms at a shovel, to see how effective it is as a bullet shield. Before I ruin a garden tool, how about somebody setting me straight on the real importance of this? Matt?

Today, the question is about refillable CO2 cartridges. And several readers have already responded with the correct answer. That is what bulk-filling is all about. It does work very well, we know that it works well and nobody disputes that fact. Back in my Airgun Letter days, I calculated the difference in cost between a 12-gram powerlet and a bulk charge that gave the same performance. The price of a fill dropped from around 50 cents per cartridge to less than a nickel for an equivalent fill that gave the same number of shots and power. The bulk pistol I used was a .177 Crosman 111 that got 50 shots per fill at over 600 f.p.s.

So, that part of the question is answered, but I don't think that was all the reader asked. Almost everybody who shoots CO2-powered guns ends up with a mound of metal containers that look like they should have some value, but don't. For the past 60 years, airgunners have made them into targets, wind chimes, and other items that extract a small amount of secondary use. But the cold hard fact is that you can't find enough uses to eliminate them all. Maybe if your castle was under siege you could load them into the cannons to repel the invaders. Lacking some wholesale use like that, you're going to have empty cartridges to throw away.

If you don't like it, try to convert your gun to bulk-fill operation. That's the only way I know to get around the problem, and we all know that doesn't always work. When the space inside the gun for the cartridge is very conformal and restrictive, there will often be no practical way to convert the gun to bulk-filling.

Therein lies my short and humorous tale for today. Back in the late 1990s, when The Airgun Letter was published, a British firm came out with a solution for this problem. Don't convert your CO2 gun to bulk-fill. Convert it to a precharged pneumatic!

Well, let me tell you, this was all the rage when it first came out. What you got for your money was a device that let you fill a cartridge the size and shape of a 12-gram powerlet with 3,000 psi air. The cartridge was then removed from the fill station. It held the air because it had an inlet valve that was shut by the internal air pressure.

The cartridge would then be placed into a CO2 gun, where the piercing pin was supposed to force the internal valve open. That allowed the air to exhaust into the gun.

YEAH! RIGHT!

This is the system being explained today. The fill station is comprised of the two parts on the left, and the three cartridges that get filled resemble CO2 cartridges.

For comparison, here's one of the refillable cartridges and a standard 12-gram expendable CO2 cartridge.

Here are the things that disturbed me about this design. The gun was set up to run on CO2 at about 900 psi. All the seals were optimized for the large CO2 molecule and are nowå being asked to work with far smaller atoms of air at triple the operating pressure! I doubted that the durometer ratings of the seals, plus the tolerances of the o-ring seats and valve faces were right for such a job.

No worry, I was told by the manufacturer. The exit hole in the cartridge was very small, so that 3,000 psi air didn't come out as fast as it normally would have.

Then there is the length of the CO2 piercing pins in each gun that had to be long enough to open the valve inside the cartridge. Are you aware of the gross differences there are in the length of these pins? Many of you own guns whose pins are not long enough to pierce a standard CO2 cartridge, and yet this thing depends on everything being the right length all the time.

Does that sound like exacting science to you? It didn't to me, but my readers pleaded with me until I finally popped to the tune of $150 for a system and two extra cartridges, bringing the total to three. Okay, I was ready to test.

Except for one thing. The freakin' system was only held shut by one or two coarse threads of the brass fill container when it was time to fill each cartridge. The variation was due to a variable length of each refillable cartridge.

Here is the refillable cartridge in the refill station.

This is how far the top screws down. I don't know about you, but I sure don't want to put 3,000 psi into that cartridge with just a couple brass threads holding things together.

Here's what's wrong with all of this. You don't use brass in 3,000 psi equipment when it's expected to contain the full pressure. You don't thread with coarse threads when you want a joint to hold under extreme pressure. And you sure as hell do not trust your life to the strength of just one or two threads for closure!

I may not be a rocket scientist, but I can usually spot a potential bottle rocket!

I never tested this system, but I made a report in The Airgun Letter that was very similar to this one, in which I showed the equipment and discussed my concerns. Apparently, the British firm that made the equipment had never been confronted by a negative review before, because within a few weeks we received what amounted to a "Cease and Desist" letter from the company's lawyer.

I cannot tell you how much that threat pleased me. I published it in The Airgun Letter and responded that we were a U.S. publication and even though the company no doubt had deep pockets and used lawyers as business tools, I had said nothing in my report that couldn't be proved in a court of law. In fact, I think the trial would have been quite a circus.

Today's moral is this--if something sounds too good to be true, if it seems to defy physics, then you're probably better off not trying it yourself. I remember all those "magic" carburetor modifications of the 1950s and '60s that were supposed to boost power and gas milage at the same time! We were paying 31 cents for a gallon of gas and were still too hard-headed to recognize that a huge V8 motor tasked to push a lead sled riding on bias-ply tires was always going to use a lot of gasoline.

Buy your CO2 cartridges in large quantities. And please, don't wonder if this same system could somehow be adapted to operate on CO2.

Changeable air transfer ports

noreply@blogger.com (B.B. Pelletier) — Fri, 19 Feb 2010 11:30:00 +0000

by B.B. Pelletier

This subject was raised by Frank B., I believe, from our conversations regarding deep-seating pellets in spring guns. Someone asked if the transfer port of the Hy Score 801 was particularly short, which he felt explained why seating pellets deeply would show a velocity increase.

I have to tell you that it isn't that simple. The air transfer port conducts the high-pressure air from the compression chamber to the back of the pellet sitting in the breech. While it has a simple job to do, the transfer port is another factor in the overall performance of the gun. In that capacity, the tune of the gun relates directly to the length and shape of the transfer port. Yes, I said the shape, too.

If you have a .22 caliber Beeman R1 humming along at 22 foot-pounds and you alter the size and shape of the transfer port, don't count on the gun delivering the same power afterward. In my experience, and from what limited testing I did with the set of ports I'm about to show you, the power usually drops when the port is altered.

Changing port dimensions and shapes was all the rage back in the mid-1990s. Jim Maccari did a brisk business altering ports for customers. And he came up with some observations of his own while doing it. If you want the rifle to continue to function over a broad range of power, based on changing the state of tune (without altering the transfer port), he found it was best to leave the port as the factory designed it. Let me give you an example to illustrate the wisdom of that.

The Beeman R1 used to come in all four calibers (.177, .20, .22 and .25). But when Weihrauch produced the R1, they made the transfer port the same size for all of them. It would have been a costly management nightmare to make a spring rifle in different port sizes according to the caliber. So, all R1s came (and still come, I believe) with a transfer port that's very close to 0.125" in diameter. The actual size is metric, but that's what it measures on an inch scale.

Now, say you're the owner of a .177 R1 that you want to rebarrel to .22. All that's needed is a new barrel and cocking link. Everything else on the rifle is the same between the two calibers. But if you altered the port for enhanced performance in .22 caliber, you might find it next to impossible to get decent performance out of it in .177. And, when you altered the port for optimum performance in .22, that's just for one or two pellets. You generally lose performance with other pellets when you make changes.

Because the transfer port is such a permanent part of the spring tube, any changes that are made can be permanent. Yes, I know of several ways to bush the spring tube so you can start all over, but is it worth the effort? Jim Maccari apparently didn't think so, because he donated a ruined spring tube to me for an experiment. Dennis Quackenbush made a set of transfer ports that slid into the hole and were held in place with a setscrew.

The transfer ports were inserts held by a setscrew.

Dennis Quackenbush made these transfer ports in graduated sizes. He gave me several blanks for further experimentation.

Another thing to think about is the shape of the transfer port. Many people suggested an air venturi. That would be a smaller hole with a bevel on either side. A properly designed venturi should speed up the flow of compressed air because it's made to pass through a tunnel that changes shape from large to small. But I never recorded any advantage from a venturi-shaped transfer port, perhaps because the machining was too rough.

A venturi shape was tried but gave no conclusive results.

Before you start your drill press, please know that I was never able to get this setup to shoot as well as an unaltered R1, but it was good enough for a few experiments. In a nutshell, here's what I learned:

1. Transfer port sizes from 0.120" to 0.145" give the same results for a .22 caliber R1 tuned for maximum power…in this gun, which was about 19 foot-pounds. When the size drops below 0.120", the velocity slows. When it gets above 0.145", it slows and the gun acts like it's being dry-fired. Lotsa dieseling, etc.

2. Exotic shapes such as venturis don't seem to affect the performance within the optimum size range and the targeted caliber.

There's more to the study of transfer ports, like ports that are centered in the compression chamber, versus ports that are offset to one side. But this should get you thinking.

The Crosman Silhouette PCP pistol - Part 1

noreply@blogger.com (B.B. Pelletier) — Thu, 18 Feb 2010 11:30:00 +0000

by B.B. Pelletier

Before I start today's report, I want to thank all the volunteers who are helping me answer questions on this blog. Most of you are not aware of the large number of people who connect with this blog and land on reports that are several years old. They did a search on an obscure airgun question and we came up as a hit, so they clicked through.

The volunteers get all the messages that I get, so they see when someone has come to a 2005 report to post a question. They usually answer the question and also guide the person to the current blog. As a result, we have built a rather large community of airgunners. While there are 100 to 150 active posters at any given time, I would estimate the number of people reading the blog to be in excess of 20,000 a day. We have a group of four from Moscow who are regulars! We may even be larger than that. I think I'm being very conservative in my estimate.

But this blog is not about numbers. It is about connecting shooters to the information they need to enjoy their sport and hobby. And the volunteers who read all the messages are helping me reach these people every day. Thank you.

As a direct result of creating this body of enthusiasts, the hobby of airgunning seems to be growing at an accelerated rate. At this year's SHOT Show, I could see that interest in airguns was at an all-time high. Even the gun writers who have for years eschewed airguns as beneath them are now scrambling to catch up. Pyramyd Air is besieged with numerous requests to test airguns from writers and publications that are virtually unknown to most of us. If this continues, the sport and hobby of airgunning will soon become a major force in the shooting sports.

I'm glad that I lived long enough to see this day arrive. For too many decades, airguns in the United States have hidden under a cabbage leaf, embarrassed to have the word "guns" in their name. The time for apologizies appears to be coming to an end. It will be interesting to see how this all plays out in the coming years.

Okay, editorial over. Let's get on to the new Crosman Silhouette PCP pistol!

Sorry about the perspective, but Blogger allows a photo that's no more than 5 inches wide, and I wanted to show the pistol larger than that.

My first experience with the Silhouette was when field target champion Ray Apelles brought a prototype to the American Airgunner studio in the Catskills on the day when he and his father came to film an episode on field target. Ray let me try the gun and, sitting in the Creedmore position for handguns, I was able to clip weed stems at 23 yards.

For most of the summer, I thought the Silhouette was the only precharged pistol Crosman was bringing out, and for a time it looked to me like they might release it in the fall of 2009. They didn't, but it's coming out now and I have a sample to test for you.

If nothing else, this pistol may help us all with the difficult spelling of the word silhouette! Now, if everyone could just learn how to spell Crosman.

If you look real hard, you can see the family resemblance to the 2240 pistol, which shares a frame with many of Crosman's current single-shot pistols. That frame is descended from the CO2 pistols Crosman made 60 years ago, though there have been a few changes over the years. In fact, there had to be some changes from the current 2240 frame to accept the pneumatic reservoir tube, and this is where Crosman wins every time. They didn't just make one change and be done with it. No, they sweetened the trigger at the same time.

Oh, don't worry! They left enough creep and weight in the mechanism to support about a hundred hobby airgun boutiques offering trigger parts and other modifications to "fix the problem." There's also plenty of grist for all the forums to have endless discussions about it. I'm just wondering what slang term will have to be invented so people don't actually have to write Silhouette in their rants. The Marauder became the M-rod, the Discovery became the Disco and the Katana the Katrina. What will the Silhouette be called? Perhaps, the Shill?

Looking at the gun, and by the way, that is my test gun up top, not a Crosman photo. You can tell the difference because my gun has all the words engraved on the action while the website shows a plain receiver--at least that's how it looked when I wrote this report the night before publication. The first thing you'll notice is the bolt handle is on the left. For decades owners have been installing aftermarket steel breeches with the bolt on the left for right-handed shooters who don't want to let go of the grip while they're loading. This is a point that Ray Apelles argued for. And, because this is a Crosman gun, you can switch that handle over to the right side.

Switching sides requires separating the barreled receiver from the reservoir. They say in the manual that you will need to send your gun to a service center, but we all know that's not going to happen.

Cocking is so smooth that you'll want to keep on doing it just for the sensation. At least, you will if you've owned a lot of other Crosman single-shot pistols that had stubby bolt handles and stiff bolts that bound during cocking. I must note that the pellet trough is made from Delrin (that's engineering plastic) with no sign of a screw head anywhere near the trough. Crosman fans will know what I'm talking about. This is the way the gun needs to be built, because it eliminates all pellet flipping during loading.

And the trigger that the forums are soon going to be in convulsions over has a wider blade than the old-style flat blade, yet it will still accept a trigger shoe. It's a single-stage trigger with a fair amount of creep, but it has an adjustable trigger stop. Give me a jar of moly grease and stand back! I will have it slicked-up in no time. The trigger-pull weight is also adjustable over a narrow range. You access the knurled adjustment wheel under the grip panels.

And this is the thousand-word picture. You can see the new, wider trigger blade, the adjustable trigger stop and the trigger-pull adjustment inside the grip.

The 10-inch barrel is a Lothar Walther, which adds value to the package. Not that Crosman can't rifle a barrel, because they certainly can. But sometimes it helps to have the Lothar Walther name associated with a gun just so everybody knows it's accurate.

The pressure gauge hangs down under the reservoir, sort of exposed. It looks like an afterthought, but that's because the pistol has no forearm to hide it. My sample arrived with a 1,000 psi caretaker charge in the reservoir to keep the valves closed against airborne dirt. That answers the question of whether or not the pistol holds air. I have seen Crosman's "clean room" setup for manufacturing PCPs, and they air up every one on the line so they can be tested. You would expect a boutique maker to do that, but what a surprise that a high-rate manufacturer does, as well.

This is a large pistol. It weighs 2.5 lbs. and is a quarter-inch shy of 15 inches in length. The aluminum receiver looks large and commanding. The pistol is built for the purpose of competing in airgun silhouette matches, but most will undoubtedly be purchased by plinkers. And they will probably want to mount a scope, though Crosman sent me a peep sight to also try. The pistol comes without a rear sight, so you can go either way, but I suspect most shooters will either scope it or install a dot sight.

It's a single-shot, as most competition guns tend to be, and the power is suited for silhouette competition. It operates on 3,000 psi air, so no chance of running on CO2 with this one. Buy a 2300T or 2300S if CO2 is what you want.

When I test it for velocity, I'll also weigh the trigger for you. So far, it's an impressive PCP pistol, though priced higher than I expected.

Mounting a globe front sight on an RWS 48/52/54

noreply@blogger.com (B.B. Pelletier) — Wed, 17 Feb 2010 11:30:00 +0000

by B.B. Pelletier

Today's report has my name on it, but my friend Earl McDonald is the one who did all the work, took the pictures and wrote the specifics. I just took what he gave me and put it into the blog report format.

This report is for the owners of RWS Diana sidelever rifles of the T05 variety. That's models 48, 52 and 54. If you want to mount a globe-type target front sight on your rifle, Diana makes a special unit to do this and Umarex USA has a few of them in stock.

While at the 2010 SHOT Show, I spoke with Glenn Seiter about what sorts of parts and neat things he had in the back room at Umarex USA, which is also RWS USA. One of the things he mentioned was this front sight. My buddy Mac has two RWS 54s in .22 caliber and was very interested to turn one into a target rifle with peep sights. This sight would make that possible.

This is a new front sight base that fits on a T05-series RWS Diana 48/52/54. The new base accepts a standard Diana front globe sight with replacement inserts. If you install this sight option, you'll also need to install an aperture rear sight to work with it, and I'll cover that for you as well.

The bottom front sight base and sight are a standard T05 sidelever front sight. The top front sight base is a special T05 sidelever rifle front sight base that replaces the standard base. Although it appears there is a slight ramp or incline on top of the base, the dovetails at the top are perfectly straight. Just the back of these dovetails can be seen when the Diana globe sight is mounted.

Here's the special front sight base with the globe sight removed.

Glenn also sent new sight inserts to Mac so he could test it for you. He told me the insert with a 2.2mm hole proved best for shooting bullseyes at 30 yards outdoors.

Only fits the T05
This front sight base fits only the new series T05 guns. The earlier T01 guns have a different style of base that's not interchangeable with this unit. The T05 rifle has a beveled flat that's machined into the steel barrel and a corresponding bevel inside the T05 front sight base. The T01 rifle sight base clamps onto dovetails cut into the top of the barrel at the muzzle.

The top of the T05 barrel has a bevel machined to accept the front inside of the T05 front sight base.

The top of the T01 barrel has dovetails to accept the front sight base.

If you were to machine or file a bevel on the steel barrel of a T01 rifle to accept the T05 base, it would have to be precise or the front sight would mount with some degree of rotation. That would ruin the rifle. I'm not saying that the conversion of a T01 rifle can't be made--just that it's a precision fit requiring careful work.

Time for the rear sight
Once Mac had the new sight installed and had determined that it fit only a T05 sidelever (he owns two 54s--one a T01 and the other a T05), it was time to select a rear sight. Initially, he tried a vintage Diana rear aperture sight, but the bottom of the dovetails on that sight are beveled rather than flat. That interferes with the fit on the sight base of the rifle, and the sight cannot be installed.

Vintage Diana aperture rear sight has odd-shaped dovetails on the bottom that prevents installation on a sidelever rear sight base.

Next, he tried a Mendoza rear aperture sight. It fit the rifle fine, but could not be adjusted low enough to work. Mac says the lowest it would go was shooting 8 inches high at 30 yards.

Mendoza rear aperture sight fits well but doesn't adjust low enough.

A Gamo rear aperture sight saved the day. It installed on the rifle and the adjustment range was fine. Mac cleaned the sight base on the rifle, then put one drop of epoxy on top of the rail and installed a Gamo aperture sight. Naturally, he knew exactly where he wanted this sight, because once the epoxy hardens the sight will be very difficult to remove.

The old Gamo rear aperture sight worked well. This sight no longer exists, but the Air Arms rear diopter may also work. Don't buy one until you are sure

If any reader owns a Diana sidelever, I'd sure like to know which currently made rear diopter sight fits the sight base.

How does it work?
After the sight was set permanently, Mac went outdoors and rested the rifle across the tool box in the bed of his Mazda pickup. AlanL, are you listening? He then proceeded to shoot group after group at 30 yards using the Crosman Premiers that have proven to be the best in this rifle. The largest group of five measured 0.31" between the two widest centers. This was on Maryland's Eastern Shore with three feet of snow on the ground, the thermometer well below freezing and the wind blowing.

So, if you want peep sights on your T05 sidelever, this looks like the best way to do it. Of course you can use a rear aperture sight with the existing post front sight that comes on both the T05 and the T01 rifles. But, if you want the globe with replaceable inserts, this is how to do it.

To buy a front sight ($39.95 and comes with one insert) and replacement inserts ($5.95 each), contact Glenn Seiter at Umarex USA. There are a limited number of this special front sight in stock, and once they are gone there won't be any more. Act now if you want one.

The Bronco from Air Venturi - Part 4

noreply@blogger.com (B.B. Pelletier) — Tue, 16 Feb 2010 11:30:00 +0000

by B.B. Pelletier

Part 1
Part 2
Part 3

Air Venturi Bronco.

Today I tested the Air Venturi Bronco with a scope. I learned a lot today, but not all of it was good. I tried to force a shooting session outdoors when the wind was swirling from all directions at 20 mph and it was hard getting things to work right. Still, I have been trying to shoot the Bronco with a scope for so long that I went ahead and did it anyway. In the end I see I'm going to have to run this test again.

For starters, I was shooting at 21 yards and all the wadcutters were off their game from the wind. They would catch a blast and sail off like frisbees in whatever direction the wind happened to be blowing. Since it was swirling where I was, that could be any direction. So I didn't test RWS Hobbys both seated flush and deep like I promised.

The scope I selected was a Leapers 4X32 long eye relief with a 100-yard parallax. That meant that either the crosshairs or the target could be in focus, but not both at the same time. Even at 21 yards, the bull was clear enough to see when it wasn't in focus. So I compromised the focus. Next time I will mount a scope that adjusts for parallax and I'll make sure everything is in focus. I didn't link to the scope because PA doesn't appear to stock it and I would not recommend it anyway.

I did remove both the front and rear sights for this, and when the rear sight comes off the baseplate the sight rests on also comes off. That leaves the rifle looking sleeker for the scope.

So, this sounds like I'm building up to tell you that the Bronco doesn't group, but I'm not going to say that at all. Even under these adverse conditions, this little Bronco is a wonderful shooter. But it only wanted to shoot domed pellets on this blustery day, and there's a big tip for you guys.

Last year on American Airgunner we demonstrated the performance of wadcutters versus domed pellets at 10 yards and again at 40 yards. At 10 yards the domes, which were Beeman Kodiaks, shot close to the same as the wadcutters with the Kodiaks being slightly more accurate. I forget which brand of wadcutter we used, but they were also good pellets.

However, when we backed up to 40 yards, the Kodiaks were still shooting five-shot groups of less than one half inch, while the wadcutters opened up to over an inch and a half. One was as large as three inches! As the frosting on the cake a fly landed on the target with the camera running and Paul Capello hit him dead center with a Kodiak. And, for the benefit of both Wayne and Kevin, Paul was shooting an Air Arms S410 for this test.

The point is this--wadcutters are great out to 10 meters and they will work on calm days out to 25 yards, but they are the absolute worst long-range pellets you can use. And, if there is a wind of any kind, forget them.

But Crosman Premier 7.9-grain pellets performed admirably. They gave good five-shot groups and they gave good 10-shot groups, as well. I suspect they didn't group as well as they might if there were no wind, but I wanted so much to do this test that I bulldozed through all the problems.

First group of five Premier 7.9-grain pellets at 20 yards was reasonable, given the wind.

Ten Premier 7.9-grain pellets at 20 yards grouped well. I adjusted the scope a couple clicks down and to the right for this group.

For the record I also tried JSB Exact domes in the 8.4-grain weight. Through the scope it didn't look like they did very well, but when I examined the target I saw a different story. They looked as though they might out-group the Premiers.

Five JSB Exact 8.4-grain pellets at 20 yards grouped surprisingly well. I lost the group in the scope and couldn't see it until I went up to the target. Had the day been nicer I would have shot more of these. Note the POI shift when a different pellet was used. There was no scope adjustment before shooting this one.

The day was well below freezing and I wasn't motivated to remain out very long--especially with the wind fighting me at every turn. So I will call this an abbreviated test that I will repeat in the not-too-distant future.

Breech-seating tests - Part 1

noreply@blogger.com (B.B. Pelletier) — Mon, 15 Feb 2010 11:30:00 +0000

by B.B. Pelletier

Today's test was inspired by the velocity test I did with the Belgian Hy Score 801 rifle I reported on a few weeks ago. You may remember that rifle shot much faster with the pellets seated deep in the breech. Because there was a breech-seating tool built right into the rifle, seating deep came naturally, but it got me wondering whether deep-seating is something we ought to be doing most of the time. Several readers did tests that showed no improvement with higher-powered spring rifles, so I guessed the technique only worked well on lower-powered springers. After you see today's results, though, I think you'll be scratching your heads, just as I am.

To keep this test inside a reasonable time limit, I decided to test two different rifles with two different pellets. I chose the new Air Venturi Bronco and a Slavia 631 I have because these two are close in power but also separated to some extent. I knew the Slavia was the slightly more powerful rifle and wanted to see what difference that would make.

For pellets, I chose Crosman Premier 7.9-grain pellets and RWS Hobbys. The Premiers are heavier than the Hobbys, plus they're made of harder lead. The Hobbys have wider skirts, so we should be able to see if any of the pellet's design matters to this test.

First the Bronco with Premiers
The Bronco went first with unseated 7.9-grain Premiers. I seated these pellets flush with the breech and pushed them tight so they wouldn't fall out. That's not a problem with the Bronco, but with some guns the pellets do want to fall out unless you press them in hard. This is especially true of some models made in China.

The unseated Premiers averaged 548 f.p.s. with a spread from 542 to 551 f.p.s. The rifle felt smooth shooting these pellets.

Then, I seated the Premiers with a Bic-type ballpoint pen, known in Europe as a Biro. The pellet seats about an eighth of an inch into the bore, and the pen stops when the tapered point contacts the diameter of the bore. You are simple pushing the writing end of the pen into the pellet's skirt, which pushes the pellet straight into the barrel. So, every seating is the same. The average velocity for seated pellets was 527 f.p.s. with a spread from 522 to 529 f.p.s. The firing behavior was smooth once more. Thus, we see that the consistency of velocity remained when the pellets were seated deeply, but the average dropped about 20 f.p.s.

Now, the Slavia 631 with Premiers
The Slavia 631 averaged 600 f.p.s. with unseated Premiers, with a range from 594 to 606 f.p.s. Once, again, the pellets were pushed in hard with the thumb, though the 631 doesn't have a problem dropping pellets from the breech. The firing behavior was full of a lot of vibration and some forward recoil. I probably would not have noticed it in any other test, but after shooting the smooth Bronco it really stood out.

When the pellets were seated deeply, they averaged 534 f.p.s. with a spread from 529 to 545 f.p.s. So, the velocity spread opened up when the pellets were seated deep, and the average dropped 66 f.p.s. As with the unseated pellets, the vibration pattern was full of vibration and forward recoil.

Now, the Bronco with Hobbys
With RWS Hobbys, the Bronco averaged 553 f.p.s. In fact, only one shot of 10 went any other velocity, and that one went 554 f.p.s. From a performance standpoint, the Bronco likes Hobbys a lot.

Deep-seating brings a big surprise
When they were seated deep the Hobbys averaged 515 f.p.s. with a spread from 493 to 547 f.p.s. Not a performance that you would think was any good except for one thing. These deep-seated pellets shot so butter-smooth that it felt like Ivan Hancock had personally tuned the rifle. All firing impulse went away. Curiously, the gun started to produce smoke with every shot. That's what I meant when I said the results of this test were puzzling. If I hadn't been chronographing them, I would have thought that I'd found the most ideal situation for the Bronco, which gave me an idea for the future. Since I have two more accuracy tests coming for the Bronco, I'll include Hobby pellets and will try them both flush-seated and deep-seated to see what they do on paper.

The Slavia 631 with Hobbys
The Slavia 631 averaged 659 f.p.s. with Hobbys seated flush. They ranged from 653 to 667 f.p.s. The firing behavior of the rifle was very harsh.

When the Hobbys were seated deep, the average velocity was 564 f.p.s. with a spread from 545 to 573. So the rifle lost 100 f.p.s. on average and the velocity spread opened up considerably. Once again, though, the rifle became much smoother-shooting. I didn't notice any dieseling with these pellets seated deeply.

I don't know about you, but this little test has really caused me to think about the deep-seating situation. I note, for example, that both rifles shot faster with flush-seated pellets. I thought the Bronco might be faster with deep-seating. That leads me to wonder how representative the little 801 really is. Is it possible that unless a gun has a very small swept volume in the compression chamber that flush-seating is usually the best was to go? Is that even a true statement? I don't know the answers to any of this yet, so it appears there are a lot of things that need to be studied.